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Photo by John Wagner

FAIRBANKS — Alaska was one of the last teams to experience a shootout this season in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association. The Nanooks, though, outlasted the Lake Superior State Lakers in the penalty-shot situation.

The Nanooks tied 1-1 in regulation, kept overtime scoreless and then won their first conference shootout, and second of the season, with senior right wing Braden Walls’ slap shot from the low slot against Lakers goaltender Brian Mahoney-Wilson.

Though the Nanooks won the shootout and earned two points, the game is officially a tie by NCAA standards. However, the outcome kept the Nanooks unbeaten in their last four games and kept their defense atop NCAA Division I with a 1.36 goals allowed average.

The Nanooks, who got 35 saves from senior goaltender Chad Johnson and a game-tying goal from junior defenseman Dustin Molle, moved to 6-3-1-1 CCHA and 8-4-2 overall to share third place with Ohio State and Ferris State. Alaska occasionally struggled in regulation and overtime to generate offensive opportunities against a Lakers squad that stepped up its forechecking after Alaska’s 4-1 win Friday. The Nanooks were also outshot 36-25 for the night, including 2-0 in the 5-minute overtime period.

“It was a little bit of what they did; they had guys back all night,” Alaska assistant coach Brian Meisner said in the postgame media conference. “We just had to fight through a lot of checks tonight. We tried to get pucks in deep, and I thought we did a better job than last night.”

The Lakers, in a seventh-place tie with Michigan at 3-4-3-1 CCHA and 4-6-4 overall, often had two defenders on a Nanooks puck carrier during the contest.

“It made it difficult for us, and their goaltender came up big,” Meisner said. “It was a tough, tough win.”

Senior left wing Troy Schwab, who accounted for the game’s first score, said the Lakers didn’t change their systems from Friday’s contest.

“We stuck with what we wanted to do last night, but I think tonight we just did better with our systems,” Schwab said.

Though Alaska missed on five power plays Saturday, it killed all four of the Lakers’ extra-man sessions, raising their penalty-killing efficiency to 91.5 percent (65 denials among 71 power plays this season) for second best in the CCHA. The Nanooks ended regulation skating short-handed after defenseman Scott Enders was whistled for a cross-checking minor at 18:24 of the third.

“Our PK is kind of one of our identities this year,” said Johnson, who leads the CCHA for goals against average (1.57) and with a saves percentage of .944 that also ties him for fourth nationally.

“If you can be good on the PK, you can have a good team,” Johnson said. “They did a good job again tonight of blocking shots (27-15 for the game) ... It’s nice to know that they’ll be laying down to block shots and that it’s (puck) got to get through two or three guys to get to me.”

Schwab, aided by Josh Sim’s crossing pass from the slot, got past Johnson at 9:35 of the first period with a wrist shot from the right circle that rang the left corner of the crossbar and dropped behind the Alaska netminder.

Molle, with only his second goal in 45 career games, tied it at 14:18, taking Brandon Knelsen’s pass on the left wing and blasting a shot from the point and through traffic in front of Mahoney-Wilson.

“I tried to settled it (pass) down and I saw a lane to the net,” said Molle, “and I just tried to get it off as quick as I could.”

After scoreless second, third and overtime periods during which they were outshot 24-17, the Nanooks went into their first shootout since a 2-2 tie against Northeastern in their season-opening game on Oct. 10.

The Nanooks decided to let the Lakers take the first shootout opportunity and Johnson deflected defenseman Steven Kaunisto’s wrist shot off his blocker.

Walls took the first opportunity for the Nanooks and he skated to just below the hash marks in the slot to unleash a shot that steamed past Mahoney-Wilson’s stick side.

Walls decided to go for the slap shot after noticing Mahoney-Wilson was effective during regulation at coming out and cutting off angles of shots.

“I wanted to come in slow and see if I could get him to back into his crease a little bit, and open up some holes,” Walls said.

Walls’ linemate Adam Naglich, the team’s captain and a senior center, missed on his shootout opportunity but Walls’ conversion proved to be enough for the Nanooks’ win after Johnson denied Lakers centers Rick Schofield and Fred Cassiani on their shootout attempts.

Alaska visits rivalry partner Nebraska-Omaha on Friday and Saturday, has the following week off and returns to the Carlson Center to face Western Michigan at 7:05 p.m. on Dec. 19-20.