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NOTRE DAME, Ind. — The 19th-ranked Alaska Nanooks displayed an aggressive offense during the first period Saturday night in the Joyce Center. The No. 1-ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish resorted to a patient attack in the third period on their home ice.

Patience won out over aggressiveness and the Nanooks lost 3-0 to finish scoreless in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association series.

Senior goaltender Chad Johnson registered 26 saves for the Nanooks, whose CCHA-leading defense held Notre Dame’s conference-leading offense scoreless for the first two periods for the second straight night before the first-place Fighting Irish rallied in the third period. Left wings Garrett Regan and Ryan Thang and center Ben Ryan did the scoring honors Saturday for Notre Dame.

“Alaska is a tough defensive team,” said Regan, “and we knew we’d have to play a patient game.”

The loss ended a four-game, two-week trip and it ended a distinction for Alaska this season in the CCHA. Following a split at Michigan State on Jan. 2-3, Alaska came to Indiana as the only team this season to earn at least two points in every CCHA series.

Alaska fell 2-0 Friday to Notre Dame and Saturday’s defeat marked the first time that the Nanooks were shut out in a conference series since the program became an official CCHA member in the 1995-96 season.

Alaska head coach Dallas Ferguson’s team generated more scoring opportunities (22 shots) than on Friday (16), but the Nanooks emerged empty-handed Saturday from the Joyce Center, while the host team raised the nation’s longest-unbeaten streak this season to 18 games (16-0-2).

“I don’t like being swept and I’m not happy with it, and I don’t think our team is happy with it,” Ferguson said. “... We’ve got 10 CCHA games left and no one is going to feel sorry for us. We’ve got to go back to Fairbanks and get working again.”

While the Nanooks didn’t get any sympathy in the Joyce Center, they did get a break in the standings. Alaska, at 8-7-3-2 CCHA and 10-8-4 overall, remained in a third-place tie with upcoming home opponent Nebraska-Omaha, which fell 3-2 Saturday to Northern Michigan.

It seemed that a split with the Fighting Irish (12-2-2-2, 18-3-2) was on the Nanooks’ minds Saturday because of the way they came out in the first period.

On Friday, the Nanooks had four shots in the first period and didn’t produce their first shot of the game until the 15:12 mark.

In the first period Saturday, Alaska was outshot 10-7, but the Nanooks had worked their way to a 6-1 advantage by the 12:30 mark. Even when they dumped pucks, the Nanooks were quick to retrieve loose pucks to keep the Fighting Irish pinned in their zone and to generate scoring opportunities against Jordan Pearce, Notre Dame’s senior goalie and a South Anchorage High School graduate. Pearce eventually earned his fourth shutout of the season and eighth of his career.

“We realized that in Friday’s game, we really didn’t play the way we wanted to play,” said Alaska junior center Dion Knelsen. “We knew we had to step up the effort and the commitment. I thought we came out with real good speed, and we outworked them for those first 10 minutes.”

The Nanooks, though, couldn’t make their power play work for the second straight night. Alaska finished 0-for-7 Saturday to end the series 0-for-12.

Alaska had four power plays in the third period Saturday, including a 4-on-3 session early in the period. It, however, produced only four shots during those chances in the final 20 minutes of the game.

“They’ve got a pretty good PK, so you’ve got to give them credit,” said Nanooks sophomore center Derek Klassen. “We’ve just got to win battles on the PP to get it set up and just get pucks to the net.”

Besides Pearce’s backstopping, Regan said Notre Dame’s penalty killing during the weekend benefited from cohesiveness.

“Working as a unit has been the biggest thing — that’s kind of been our bread and butter since I’ve been here for four years,” Regan said. “We just kind of work on it every day and communicate down low, and Pearce makes some big saves.”

Regan, who has 13 points in 14 career games against Alaska, redirected in defenseman Kyle Lawson’s shot from the top of the right circle at 5:53 of the third for the game’s first goal. A few seconds before the score, Klassen had his stick broken near the right circle while he was stuck between two players.

Regan scored as Klassen was reaching for a replacement stick at the Nanooks bench.

“I was going back to the bench to grab a stick, and I turned around and the puck was in the net,” Klassen said. “I was unlucky, but it happens.”

Ryan banged in a rebound of Thang’s shot from in front of the crease at 12:28, and Thang planted an empty-net goal at the 19:05 mark.

Contact staff writer Danny Martin at 459-7586.