The No. 15 Wildcats got five out of a possible six points in an important series with Alaska-Fairbanks, getting a 4-4 tie Friday and a 4-2 victory Saturday.

Heading into the weekend, NMU (14-8-4, 12-5-1-1 WCHA) was a single point behind the Nanooks (13-13-2, 11-9-2) in the WCHA, but now the ‘Cats have passed Alaska and sit alone in third place.

NMU forward Darien Craighead also picked up his 100th career point with his second of two goals Saturday.

On Friday, Northern fell behind 1-0 after Alaska’s Kylar Hope got a cross-ice pass from Steven Jandric and scored on a power play just 3:09 into the game.

Griffin Loughran

The Wildcats answered back, though, when Griffin Loughran got a pass from Hank Sorensen, broke free down the middle and beat Nanooks goalie Anton Martinsson five-hole at the 13:24 mark. Just 1:32 later, NMU forward Luke Voltin gave the Wildcats their first lead. After Craighead’s shot was saved by Martinsson, Voltin tapped the rebound in.

Still in the fast and furious opening period, the Nanooks retied it 2-2 when Justin Young got a pass from Tyler Cline and beat NMU goalie Nolan Kent at the 17:02 mark, then took the lead when Chris Jandric scored on the power play a little more than a minute later.

At that point, Kent was pulled in favor of John Hawthorne. The Wildcats tied it up less than a minute later when Sorensen snapped a shot past Martinsson to make it 3-3 at the first intermission.

In the second period, Northern again took the lead at 5:50 when its struggling power play connected. Forward Vincent de Mey snagged the puck to prevent a Nanook clear and fed the puck to defenseman Phil Beaulieu, who one-timed it past Martinsson. The Wildcats maintained that 4-3 lead into the third period.

But again, the lead didn’t last long as Alaska tied it 4-4 on a tally by Troy Van Tetering barely a minute into the final period, a score that remained there for the rest of the third and through the first overtime.

john hawthorne

However, in the 3-on-3 OT, Northern forward Joe Nardi got a pass from Loughran, skated into the Nanooks’ defensive zone and beat Martinsson blocker-side. Since Nardi’s tally came in the second overtime, Northern got two points and Alaska one, moving into a tie with each other for third in the standings.

On Saturday, it was the Wildcats who scored first as Craighead snapped a shot into a wide-open net. Less than four minutes later, NMU forward Andre Ghantous almost put the ‘Cats up by two, but his shot was snagged by Alaska goalie Gustavs Grigals.

Northern kept the Nanooks under control as Alaska didn’t register a shot on net until about 6:25 left. However, Alaska did tie it at 18:50. Just seconds after Hawthorne made a nice kick save on Tyler Cline, Steven Jandric snuck a shot past the freshman netminder to make the score 1-1 going to the second period.

The Nanooks started the middle period by putting a little pressure on Hawthorne, but he kept the game tied with a nice save on a Tristan Thompson shot. Northern’s first good opportunity came midway through the period when Loughran fed de Mey in the slot, but he tried to go five-hole and was denied by Grigals.

The Wildcats took a 2-1 lead when A.J. Vanderbeck’s shot rang off the post and went right to Craighead, who tapped it past Grigals. Just like it had all weekend, Alaska answered less than a minute later on a goal by Cline.

Northern had a chance to retake the lead with about six minutes remaining as Ghantous snapped a one-timer on net, but Grigals made the save to keep it 2-2 headed to the third.

Hawthorne made a save on the Nanooks’ Colton Leiter early in the third and denied Alaska on an offensive rush soon after that.

The Wildcats later supplied Hawthorne with some offensive support at the 12:07 mark. While on the power play, Vanderbeck got a pass from Ben Newhouse and one-timed a shot past Grigals to put Northern up 3-2.

In desperation mode with less than three minutes left, Grigals was pulled for an extra attacker, but just a few seconds later, Loughran scored an empty-netter for his nation-leading 19th goal of the season to cap off the win.

NMU returns home this weekend to face Ferris State (7-18-2, 5-13-2).

Information compiled by Journal Sports Writer Ryan Stieg. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal. net.