newsminer.com

Dallas Ferguson was an Alaska sophomore defenseman the last time the Nanooks played in a regular-season college hockey tournament, the Badger Showdown in Madison, Wis., in November 1993.

This season, with Ferguson as their new head coach, the Nanooks will drop the puck in two season-opening tournaments.

Alaska faces Connecticut and Northeastern in the Kendall Hockey Classic at Sullivan Arena in Anchorage on Oct. 10-11. Connecticut is a member of the Atlantic Hockey Association and Boston’s Northeastern plays in Hockey East .

The Nanooks stay on the tournament train with their inaugural Brice Alaska Goal Rush on Oct. 17-18 at the Carlson Center. Alaska takes on Pennsylvania school Mercyhurst of Atlantic Hockey on the first night and closes the tournament with Maine of Hockey East.

Intrastate rival Alaska Anchorage is involved in each tournament, but the Nanooks and the Seawolves will not square off in either one. They won’t battle until the regular season-ending Alaska Airlines Governor’s Cup Series on Feb. 27 at the Carlson Center and Feb. 28 in Sullivan Arena.

It’s the first time since 1998-99 that annual intrastate feud will be a two-game set rather than a four-game clash.

The Nanooks got an unexpected rest last year in the opening month of the regular season, when they only faced UAA last Oct. 19-20 at Sullivan Arena for the first two games of the Governor’s Cup Series.

This season, Alaska will be a well-tested team by the end of October.

Before the two tournaments, the Nanooks play their annual Blue-Gold Game on Sept. 26 at the Patty Center and head across town the next night to meet the U.S. National Team Development Program Under-18 Team in an exhibition at the Big Dipper Ice Arena.

The national team defeated the Nanooks 5-3 in September 2006 at Sullivan Arena, and it will be Alaska’s first game at the Dipper since a Central Collegiate Hockey Association series against Ohio State in October 1999.

Alaska ends the preseason against the University of British Columbia on Oct. 3 at the Carlson Center.

Following the Kendall Classic and the Goal Rush, Alaska opens CCHA play against Bowling Green State University of Ohio at the Carlson Center on Oct. 24-25 and travels to Oxford, Ohio, to take on Miami, the CCHA regular-season and tournament runner-up and an NCAA Division I Tournament team in 2007-08.

Ferguson, in a University of Alaska Fairbanks press release, said playing six games before the first CCHA series will be huge for the Nanooks in the upcoming season.

“We’ve seen from last year when we missed the nonconference opponents and got off to a real slow start,” he said. “From a team standpoint, playing that many games before we hit the CCHA is going to be an advantage for us, with a new coach and 10 new freshmen getting inserted in our program.”

The Nanooks, then coached by Doc DelCastillo, opened last season by losing their first seven games. Alaska ended at 9-21-5 overall and at 8-16-4 in CCHA action for ninth place.

“Our schedule is tough from top to bottom; there are no easy games,” Ferguson said. “We don’t play a lot of games (in college hockey), and when you pull weekends out where you’re not playing, it’s hard to get any flow going to your season.

“This schedule allows us to jump right into it and play games, and that will be a great way to start our season.”

The Nanooks’ annual post-New Year’s Day, two-week road trip has a championship touch this season.

Alaska visits Michigan State, the 2007 national champion, on Jan. 2-3 in East Lansing, Mich., and stops at the Joyce Center in Notre Dame, Ind., on Jan. 9-10 for a pair against Notre Dame, which lost to Boston College in this year’s national championship game on April 12 in Denver.

Alaska’s upcoming season also features a home series on Nov. 7-8 against Michigan, which lost to Notre Dame in the Frozen Four in Denver after capturing the CCHA regular-season and tournament titles and advancing to the D-I tournament.

2008-09 SCHEDULE

Home games at 7:05 p.m. at the Carlson Center unless noted

Sept. 26—Blue and Gold Game, Patty Center

Sept. 27—U.S. National Team Development Program Under-18 Team (exhibition), Big Dipper Ice Arena

Oct. 3—University of British Columbia (exhibition), Patty Center

Oct. 10—Northeastern at Kendall Hockey Classic, Sullivan Arena, Anchorage

Oct. 11—Connecticut at Kendall Hockey Classic, Sullivan Arena, Anchorage

Oct. 17—Brice Alaska Goal Rush at Carlson Center, times TBA (Alaska Anchorage vs. Maine; Alaska vs. Mercyhurst).

Oct. 18—Brice Alaska Goal Rush at Carlson Center, times TBA (Alaska Anchorage vs. Mercyhurst; Alaska vs. Maine).

Oct. 24-25—Bowling Green State*

Oct. 31-Nov. 1—at Miami (Ohio)*

Nov. 7-8—Michigan*

Nov. 21-22—at Ferris State*

Nov. 28-29—Lake Superior State*

Dec. 5-6—at Nebraska-Omaha*

Dec. 19-20—Western Michigan*

Jan. 2-3—at Michigan State*

Jan. 9-10—at Notre Dame*

Jan. 16-17—Nebraska-Omaha*

Jan. 23-24—at Northern Michigan*

Jan. 30-31—Ohio State*

Feb. 13-14—at Western Michigan*

Feb. 20-21—Ferris State*

Feb. 27—Alaska Anchorage (Senior Night)**

Feb. 28—at Alaska Anchorage, Sullivan Arena**

*Central Collegiate Hockey Association series

**Alaska Airlines Governor’s Cup Series