2018–19 Alaska Nanooks men's ice hockey season

The 2018–19 Alaska Nanooks men's ice hockey season was the 70th season of play for the program, the 35th at the Division I level and the 6th in the WCHA conference. The Nanooks represented the University of Alaska Fairbanks and were coached by Erik Largen, in his 1st season.
==Season==
After just one season with Lance West behind the bench, Alaska brought in Erik Largen as the program's 27th head coach. The Nanooks had trouble finding their game early in the season under their new leader and began 0–7–1. While some of the struggles were caused by a difficult schedule (6 games came against ranked opponents), Alaska's offense was paltry in those matches. The team averages less than 2 goals per game and were shut out on three occasions.
The team improved in November and saw some modest gains in their scoring production. Freshman goalie, Gustavs Dāvis Grigals, also got a turn in net and helped propel Alaska to four wins over a four-week span. While it looked like the team may be rounding a corner, both Grigals and nominal starter Anton Martinsson struggled as the calendar turned to January and the Nanooks ended up with a 5-game losing streak.
Martinsson recovered first and helped the team right the ship down the stretch. Alaska showed some grit with wins over Bowling Green and Minnesota State when both were ranked in the top-10. The Nanooks were also able to take three out of four games from Alaska Anchorage to claim their seventh straight Governor's Cup.
In the WCHA Tournament, Alaska continued to show improvement when they fought hard against 2nd seed, Northern Michigan. The team took a 4–2 lead into the third period but couldn't stop the Wildcats from tying the game in the waning seconds. The Nanooks fought hard in the overtime, firing 14 shots on goal in just over 30 minutes, but they couldn't solve Atte Tolvanen. While NMU won the game, the team didn't fold and continued to press in the second game. Alaska got out to a 2–0 lead by the midpoint of the game but again could not hold the lead and surrendered 4 goals over a 20-minute span. Tyler Cline scored with Martinsson on the bench to close the gap to 1 but the Nanooks couldn't get the tying marker and saw their season slip away despite a gutsy performance.
==Departures==
Kyle Froese 	Defenseman		Transferred to Wisconsin–Eau Claire
Zach Frye 	Defenseman		Graduation (signed with San Jose Barracuda)
Ross Heidt 	Forward 		Transferred to Red Deer
Aaron Herdt 	Forward 		Transferred to Concordia
Nick Hinz 	Defenseman		Graduation (retired)
Danny Kiraly 	Defenseman		Transferred to Wisconsin–Stevens Point
Tayler Munson	Forward 		Graduation (retired)
Austin Vieth 	Forward 		Graduation (signed with Peoria Rivermen)
Justin Woods 	Defenseman		Graduation (signed with Jacksonville Icemen)
==Recruiting==
Matthew Doran 	Defenseman		21	St. Louis, MO
Colin Doyle 	Forward 		20	Campbellford, ON
Chase Ellingson 	Forward 		21	Blaine, MN
Jake Gresh 	Defenseman		20	Avon, CT
Gustavs Dāvis Grigals	Goaltender		20	Riga, LAT
Caleb Hite 	Forward 		21	Grand Blanc, MI
Chris Jandric 	Defenseman		19	Prince George, BC
Jordan Muzzillo 	Defenseman		21	Capron, IL
Samuel Ruffin 	Forward 		19	Westfield, IN
Antti Virtanen 	Defenseman		20	Kittilä, FI
==Roster==
==Standings==
==Schedule and results==
|-
!colspan=12 style=";" | Exhibition
|-
!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular Season
|-
!colspan=12 style=";" | 
|- align="center" bgcolor="#e0e0e0"
|colspan=12|Alaska Lost Series 0–2
==Scoring statistics==
 	LW 	36	9 	15 	24 	71
 	D 	35	6 	14 	20 	40
 	F 	36	8 	11 	19 	46
 	C 	36	6 	10 	16 	36
 	LW 	28	3 	12 	15 	42
 	F 	32	8 	3 	11 	16
 	C/LW	33	6 	5 	11 	40
 	C/D 	35	6 	5 	11 	64
 	C 	33	2 	9 	11 	6
 	D 	35	0 	10 	10 	60
 	LW 	36	6 	2 	8 	30
 	F 	29	0 	8 	8 	31
 	LW 	33	5 	1 	6 	6
 	D 	34	1 	5 	6 	42
 	D 	36	1 	5 	6 	24
 	C 	33	2 	3 	5 	14
 	C 	26	0 	4 	4 	54
 	F 	16	1 	2 	3 	0
 	C/RW	19	1 	1 	2 	6
 	G 	25	0 	2 	2 	8
 	D 	11	1 	0 	1 	2
 	D 	12	0 	1 	1 	4
 	D 	13	0 	1 	1 	2
 	G 	28	0 	1 	1 	41
 	G 	1 	0 	0 	0 	0
 	G 	14	0 	0 	0 	0
 	F 	19	0 	0 	0 	2
Bench	- 	- 	- 	- 	- 	12
Total	 	 	72	130	202	699
==Goaltending statistics==
 	1 	32 	0 	0 	0	0 	5 	0	1.000	0.00
 	25	1410	7 	15	2	64 	648 	2	.910 	2.72
 	14	739 	5 	6 	1	41 	367 	0	.900 	3.33
Empty Net	- 	24 	- 	- 	-	9 	- 	-	- 	-
Total 	36	2206	12	21	3	114	1020	2	.899 	3.10
==Rankings==
Poll 	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week 	Week	Week	Week
Poll 	Pre 	1 	2 	3 	4 	5 	6 	7 	8 	9 	10 	11 	12 	13 	14 	15 	16 	17 	18 	19 	20 	21 	22 	23 	24 	25 	26 (Final)	 	 	
USCHO.com	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	- 	NR 	 	 	
USA Today	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	 	 	
USCHO did not release a poll in Week 25.
==Awards and honors==
Steven Jandric	All-WCHA Third Team 	
Chris Jandric 	WCHA All-Rookie Team	
==References==
2018-19
Category:2018–19 WCHA men's season
Category:2018–19 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey by team