The No. 14-ranked Nanooks hockey team split a road series against the Mavericks of Nebraska-Omaha this past weekend. The Nanooks fell on Friday, 2-4, but triumphed on Saturday 4-3.

On Friday, the Nanoooks took an early 2-0 lead in the first period on an unassisted goal from Lucas Burnett at 1:43 and another goal from Curtis Fraser, assisted by Ryan Muspratt and Kyle Greentree, at 6:38.

In the second period, the Nanooks completely collapsed. Mick Lawrence closed the gap for the Mavericks after just 20 seconds of play on a goal assisted by Scott Parse and Bill Bagron. At 7:56, Parse scored, assisted by Bill Thomas, tying the game at 2 goals. Several minutes later, Thomas scored, this time assisted by Parse and Brandon Scero, at 12:11. Finally, Parse scored his second goal of the evening at 15:56, on assists from Mike Eickman and Bagron, putting the score at 4-2 in Nebraska's favor. After outshooting the Mavericks 10-5 in the first period, UAF was outdone 17-3 in the second.

The Nanooks woke up again in the third period, but were unable to score any goals, having already blown a 2-goal lead.

"We were outworked, outhustled, outskated, and outdone, period," said UAF coach Tavis MacMillian. "Our power-play was ineffective tonight. We played well in the first period, but they came back with a power-play goal in the second and it snowballed from there."

On Saturday night, the Nanooks again took the lead in the first period when Greentree took a breakaway pass from Burnett at 18:34, putting UAF up 1-0 as both teams went to the locker room. UAF had been outshot 13-3 in the period.

In the second period, the 'Nooks played stronger than the previous night, with Jordan Hendry scoring an unassisted power-play goal at 1:08, putting them up 2-0. After serving a penalty, Aaron Lee shot out of the box and added another goal, assisted by Justin Binab, at 3:33.

This took the wind out of both the Mavericks and the 6,000-strong crowd, and when Kelly Czuy widened UAF's lead to 4-0 at 15:05, on a power-play assist from Fraser, things became very quiet in the half-empty Qwest Center.

Only 16 seconds later, however, they got louder, as the Mavs' Thomas took an assist from Joe Grimaldi breaking the shutout at 15:21. Through the rest of the period, UNO played much stronger, but was unable to even the score any further.

At 8:09 in the third period, Thomas struck again, this time assisted by Grimaldi and Dan Knapp, pushing the score to 4-2. Parse added another marker at 13:06, assisted by Bryan Marhsall and Thomas, putting the Mavericks just one goal short, at 4-3. The Nanooks held out through the rest of the period, weathering a storm of 14 shots on goal, holding UNO at 3 goals to get the victory.

For the Mavericks, Thomas and Parse tallied three goals and two assists over the weekend. Chad Johnson, in goal for UAF, managed 31 saves, while two Maverick goalies combined for only 9. Of course, the ‘Nooks were only able to get off 13 shots in the entire game.

The Nanooks, currently ranked 14^th in the NCAA Division I, return to Fairbanks next weekend, for a two-game Thanksgiving series against the Wildcats of Northern Michigan, Nov. 25 and 26. Both games are at the Carlson Center.