UAF latest athletic information:

FAIRBANKS, AK – Alaska Nanooks head hockey coach Dallas Ferguson announced the team’s 2008-09 schedule today.

The program’s 30th NCAA season includes 34 Division I games, two preseason tournaments and three exhibition contests. The Nanooks are slated for the NCAA maximum of six non-conference games and 28 Central Collegiate Hockey Association contests.

Alaska will participate in three exhibition contests in the preseason, playing the annual Blue & Gold game on Sept. 26 at the Patty Center, the US National Team Development Program’s Under-18 squad at the Big Dipper on Sept. 27, and the University of British Columbia on Oct. 3 at the Carlson Center.

The 2008-09 campaign officially kicks off on the road at the Kendall Hockey Classic in Anchorage on Oct. 10-11, which includes Connecticut of the Atlantic Hockey League, Northeastern of Hockey East and the tournament host Seawolves of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association.

“It’s a great start of the season before we head into CCHA play to have the two tournaments and the exhibitions against the Development Team and the Canadian school,” said Ferguson. “It’s going to give us six games before we play in a CCHA contest and that’s huge. We’ve seen from last year when we missed the non-conference opponents and got off to a real slow start. 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 into our program.”

The following weekend (Oct. 17-18) is the inaugural Brice Alaska Goal Rush, when the Nanooks will host Maine (Hockey East), Mercyhurst (Atlantic Hockey) and UAA.

“Our schedule is tough from top to bottom: there are no easy games. We don’t play a lot of games (in college hockey), and when you pull weekends out where you’re not playing its 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.”

Alaska’s 14th CCHA season sees the Blue and Gold sharing a cluster with Western Michigan, Ferris State, and their rivalry partner Nebraska-Omaha. They open conference play at home, with a two-game series against Bowling Green on Oct. 24-25 before venturing to Oxford, Ohio for their first CCHA road series against the Miami RedHawks (Oct. 31-Nov.1) and then hosting the 2008 national runner-up and CCHA Champion, Michigan Wolverines, Nov. 7-8. They are idle Nov. 14-15 with a bye weekend.

While the Nanook basketball team hosts the 2008 BP Top of the World Classic Nov. 20-23, the hockey team will return to action (Nov. 21-22) against the first of three clustermates, the Ferris State Bulldogs, in Big Rapids.

Thanksgiving weekend will be spent at home, welcoming the Lake Superior State Lakers (Nov. 28-29) before venturing to Omaha (Dec. 5-6) for the third time in 13 months in a rematch of last year’s first-round playoff series against the Mavericks.

Ferguson’s squad will take a second break in time to study for finals (Dec. 12-13) just prior to hosting the WMU Broncos to close out the first half of the season in a pre-holiday break tilt.

With classes out for the semester break and the turn of the new year, Alaska will take its annual two-week road trip to resume the second half of its schedule, visiting Michigan State (Jan. 2-3) in East Lansing and Notre Dame (Jan. 9-10) in South Bend.

Three of Alaska’s final five conference pairings will take place in Fairbanks, facing off against UNO (Jan. 16-17), Ohio State (Jan. 30-31) and Ferris State (Feb. 20-21) at the Carlson Center, with road match-ups spattered between the homestands at Northern Michigan (Jan. 23-34) and Western Michigan (Feb. 13-14).

For the first time since the 1998-99 season, the Nanooks will face UAA for just two games to decide the Alaska Airlines Governor’s Cup champion instead of spreading a four-game series over two weekends. The home-and-home series will open in Fairbanks in Feb. 27 and close in Anchorage the following night (Feb. 28). The Blue and Gold will look to build momentum heading into the postseason by claiming the Cup for their sixth title in the last eight years.

“It will be interesting to see how it goes: play one night here and one night there. It will be a bit of a challenge and something that we’re not used to (playing home-and-home series), but I know it means a lot to both universities and both cities so it just makes those two games that much bigger for both teams.”

Hockey season ticket renewal forms are being sent out this week and packages for new season ticket holders will go on sale July 21. For more information about season ticket packages and pricing, please call the UAF Ticket Office at 907-474-5977.

2008-09 Alaska Nanooks Hockey Schedule

          September

          26      BLUE & GOLD (Exhibition @ Patty Center)^

          27      USNTDP U-18 (Exhibition @ Big Dipper) ^

          October

          3        BRITISH COLUMBIA (Exhibition)

          10      Northeastern (@ UAA Kendall Hockey Classic)

          11      Connecticut (@ UAA Kendall Hockey Classic)

          17      MERCYHURST (Brice Alaska Goal Rush) ^

          18      MAINE (Brice Alaska Goal Rush) ^

          24-25  BOWLING GREEN*

          31      @ Miami-Ohio*

          November

          1        @ Miami-Ohio*

          7-8     MICHIGAN*

          21-22  @ Ferris State*

          28-29  LAKE SUPERIOR STATE*

          December

          5-6     @ Nebraska-Omaha*

          19-20  WESTERN MICHIGAN*

          January

          2-3     @ Michigan State*

          9-10   @ Notre Dame*

          16-17  NEBRASKA-OMAHA*

          23-24  @ Northern Michigan*

          30-31  OHIO STATE*

          February

          13-14  @ Western Michigan*

          20-21  FERRIS STATE*

          27      ALASKA ANCHORAGE (SENIOR NIGHT)

          28      @ Alaska Anchorage

HOME GAMES ARE ALL CAPS
* Central Collegiate Hockey Association game
^Events not included in season tickets packages