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Photo by John Wagner

Photo by John Wagner

Photo by John Wagner

FAIRBANKS — The 17th-ranked and unbeaten Alaska Nanooks experienced a delight and somewhat of a dilemma on Friday night in the second annual Brice Alaska Goal Rush at the Carlson Center.

The Nanooks went to 3-0-0 with a 4-2 victory over the Robert Morris Colonials, who were playing their first game of the season.

However, the intrastate rival Alaska Anchorage Seawolves hold the edge in the tournament when it comes to the first tiebreaker of goals differential. The Seawolves won 3-0 earlier Friday over the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Engineers and UAA will be vying to repeat as Goal Rush champions when they face Robert Morris at 3:05 p.m. today. The Nanooks and RPI close out the tournament at 6:35 p.m.

“It’s more important that we play our style of game, and we’re more disappointed because we don’t want to give up goals in the last minute of the game no matter if it’s a tournament or not,” Alaska assistant coach Brian Meisner said.

Freshman center Jarret Granberg gave the Nanooks a 4-1 lead with the second of his first two collegiate goals, a backhand off the right corner of the crossbar at 3:18 of the third period.

The Colonials cut the lead with 53 seconds left after defenseman Denny Urban deposited a shorthanded goal that evolved from a 3-on-2 breakaway for Robert Morris.

“When we got the penalty, I said ‘Guys, this game is not over,’” Urban said. “We’ve got to fight to the end and fight to the sound of the buzzer.”

The Nanooks have to fight today to keep their tournament’s trophy at home.

“We can’t control what (UAA) is going to do; we have to control what we do,’’ Meisner said. “We have to try to win our game tomorrow.”

Besides Granberg’s two goals, Alaska won with the help of junior center Derek Klassen’s first goal of the season and freshman right wing Andy Taranto’s power-play goal during a three-goal surge in the second period.

That followed a scoreless first period during which the Nanooks had a 15-8 advantage in actual shots on goal. They finished the stanza with 36 attempts to the Colonials’ 13.

“It was a little frustrating in the first period. It was like we were doing everything right, but we weren’t getting the goals,” senior defenseman Dustin Molle said.

Sophomore left wing Carlo Finucci contributed two assists for Alaska, and Nanooks sophomore goaltender Scott Greenham, now 6-0-1 in his first seven career starts, stopped 16 of 18 shots.

Colonials sophomore counterpart Brooks Ostergard withstood 45 of the Nanooks’ 49 shots.

Klassen made it 1-0 by collecting Brandon Knelsen’s centering pass in the right circle and lining it past Ostergard’s glove side at 45 seconds into the second period.

Right wing Cody Crichton tied it at 9:50 for Robert Morris, taking the remnant of a battle behind the net and sneaking it behind Greenham’s skate at the left post.

The Nanooks responded with goals from Granberg at 11:11 and from Taranto at 19:37 on the lone conversion of eight Nanooks power plays. Taranto scored from the left circle with a rebound of Joe Sova’s pass from the slot that bounced off Dion Knelsen in front of the crease.

Freshmen have accounted for eight of the Nanooks’ 29 points this season. Granberg attributed the rookies’ contributions to leadership from the veterans.

“Us freshmen look up to them and we see the hard work in practice they’re giving and we want to compete,’’ Granberg said, “because we want to start in the lineup, too.”

Contact staff writer Danny Martin at 459-7586.