AMHERST, Mass. – An early two-goal lead helped University of Massachusetts hockey roll to a 7-3 win to complete its weekend sweep of Alaska at the Mullins Center on Saturday night. With the victory, the Minutemen improve to 13-10-2 on the year, while the Nanooks fall to 7-11-5.

“We were very opportunistic tonight,” said UMass head coach Greg Carvel. “I don’t think the score is indicative. I thought Alaska gave us a really good game and that we were very opportunistic in our scoring early on. It was pretty wide open. A little more wide open than I’d like it to be. I thought (Michael) Hrabal played really well all weekend, and it’s three in a row, we’ll take it and move on and try to make it four.”

The Minutemen opened up the scoring at the 3:22 mark of the first as Lucas Mercuri’s offensive zone faceoff win bounced through Nicholas Grabko and into the back of the Alaska net.

It quickly became 2-0 just 48 seconds later as a rebound from sophomores Dans Locmelis and Jack Musa amidst a scramble in front of the Alaska goal kicked out to Cole O’Hara in the slot for him to bury into the twine for his 13th goal of the season.

The Nanooks cut their deficit in half with Kyle Gaffney and Brendan Ross starting a rush up the ice that Matt Hubbard was able to tap home at the back post at the 9:29 mark of the opening frame.

UMass then made it a 3-1 margin at 11:55 with Mercuri hammering home a rebound after freshman Francesco Dell’Elce’s initial attempt was stopped. Freshman Larry Keenan earned an assist on the play, as well.

Alaska pulled back within one 19 seconds into the second period when Chase Defoe’s shot off a feed from Cade Ahrenholz banked off the end boards into goaltender Michael Hrabal and in.

Musa promptly gave the Minutemen back some breathing room, knocking the puck into an open net from the slot after graduate student Linden Alger picked up a pass from O’Hara and circled the offensive zone before setting up Musa at the 5:10 mark.

Locmelis extended the gap to 5-2, converting on UMass’ lone power play of the contest off a feed from juniors Lucas Olvestad and Kenny Connors at 18:14.

With 59 seconds to go in the frame, O’Hara pocketed his second of the night, redirecting a pass from Alger at the net front. Junior Kennedy O’Connor also earned an assist on the play.

Alaska, with an extra attacker on and the net empty, managed to score a power-play goal midway through the third with Dafoe cleaning up a rebound from Peyton Platter and Broten Sabo for his second of the contest at the 12:47 mark.

Connors then pocketed an empty net goal from Musa and junior Owen Murray 15:13 into the final frame to complete the scoring.

The Nanooks finished the night with a 33-28 edge in shots and went 1-for-4 on the power play to UMass’ 1-for-1.

Six Minutemen ended the evening with multi-point performances, led by O’Hara (2g, 1a) and Musa (1g, 2a) with three points each.

Hrabal totaled 30 saves in the win for UMass, while Grabko and Lassi Lehti posted 16 and five saves, respectively, for Alaska.

The Minutemen will be back in action next Friday, January, 31, when the squad will wrap up its series with Merrimack at 7 p.m. at the Mullins Center.

Alaska’s all-Republican congressional delegation welcomed President Donald Trump’s executive orders that were intended to boost resource development in Alaska. But the delegation has been divided on other actions Trump has taken since returning to the White House.

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski spoke to the Daily News on Thursday from Washington, D.C., about Trump’s executive orders, Jan. 6 and his Cabinet picks.

U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan and U.S. Rep. Nick Begich III responded to several questions through prepared statements.

Jan. 6

Murkowski was alone among Alaska’s three-member congressional delegation in stridently opposing Trump’s blanket pardons of hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants, including some who assaulted law enforcement officers.

“When someone attacks, assaults, beats, violates a police officer, it shouldn’t make any difference what day of the year that took place,” she said in a phone interview. “It is a criminal act, and it should be charged and prosecuted as such.”

Over 100 Capitol police officers were injured in the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol after Trump lost the 2020 election.

Murkowski said that she recently spoke to a Capitol police officer who quietly thanked her for her recent statement of support on social media.

Sullivan said through a statement that Trump had promised “many times” on the campaign trail that he would pardon the Jan. 6 defendants.

He said that stood in contrast to former President Joe Biden’s last-minute pardons for his family members, and his commutations for murderers on death row.

Sullivan, a former Alaska attorney general, said he didn’t know the details of the roughly 1,600 cases related to the attack on the Capitol, and he declined to comment on “the specifics.”

”In general, however, as I have said since January 6 — and as Vice President Vance said as recently as last week — if someone committed acts of violence against law enforcement officers, they should be held accountable,” he said.

In an emailed statement, U.S. Rep. Nick Begich said on Thursday that Trump acted within his constitutional authority to issue the Jan. 6 pardons.

He also criticized Biden’s actions to pardon family members, but did not directly respond to a question on the appropriateness of erasing sentences for people who assaulted police officers.

”During the years of enduring Democrat calls to defund the police, Republicans stood firm with law enforcement and ‘backed the blue.’ My strong support for law enforcement will not change,” he said.

Executive orders

Since his inauguration on Monday, Trump has signed a flurry of executive orders, including one entitled, “Unleashing Alaska’s extraordinary resource potential.”

The sweeping Alaska-focused order is intended to boost energy production on the North Slope, reverse logging restrictions in the Tongass National Forest, and to support building a long-sought road between King Cove and Cold Bay — among other impacts.

”I think it’s exciting in many, many, many ways,” Murkowski said.

She said that the executive order would be “enormously helpful” as the state worked to access more of its mineral and timber resources.

Fellow Republican political leaders — Gov. Mike Dunleavy, Sullivan and Begich — were similarly enthusiastic about Trump’s plans to boost mining and oil and gas development in Alaska.

Trump on Monday ordered for North America’s highest peak — Denali — to be renamed McKinley. Murkowski was strongly opposed to that name change, but Sullivan, Begich and Dunleavy were more ambivalent.

She said Alaskans were “buzzing“ about the mountain’s name-change back to McKinley.

But on Trump’s other executive orders, Murkowski was more cautious.

She said the orders were “broad and far reaching” — related to a wide array of subjects like energy, the environment, and border security.

People would initially be very excited and concerned about those actions, Murkowski said, but it would take some time for her to evaluate their impacts.

“It’s a lot to take in. So, we are very, very, very busy,” she said.

As an example, she pointed to a planned pause of Biden-era infrastructure spending that Politico reports could imperil billions of dollars in projects already under construction. That spending came partly from a bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that Murkowski, herself, helped author in 2021.

“I don’t fault an incoming administration for wanting to do a close and a critical review of programs,” she said.

Nominees

Murkowski on Friday voted against confirming Pete Hegseth to lead the U.S. Department of Defense.

In a lengthy statement, she said on Thursday that her opposition came partly from sexual assault allegations leveled against Hegseth, and his past opposition to women serving in combat.

Murkowski was one of three Republican senators — along with Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell and Maine Sen. Susan Collins — to oppose Hegseth’s nomination. She became the first Republican to publicly announce she would vote against a Trump cabinet pick.

Sullivan voted in favor of Hegseth’s nomination. He felt confident Hegseth would “refocus our military on lethality, warfighting and peace through strength,” he said in a statement Thursday.

Other Trump cabinet nominees have proven contentious.

A national healthcare group is urging Murkowski to block Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from leading the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, including a concerted effort in Alaska.

Kennedy has been opposed for threatening a “war on public health,“ and his long history as an anti-vaccine activist and an opponent of fluoride in drinking water.

Similarly, former Hawaii Democratic U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard — Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence — has drawn concerns over her meeting with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and her questionable statements about Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Murkowski, though, declined to say how she would vote on either Trump nominee — or dozens of others still to be confirmed.

“I’m doing what I do best, which is my homework, and I anticipate that I’m going to be doing that, not only with those two, but we have a good handful,” she said.

Last month, Sullivan posted statements on social media indicating that he would support Kennedy and Gabbard’s nominations.

• • •

The last time basketball players from Heritage Christian School came up to the Last Frontier to participate in the annual Alaska Airlines Classic was two years ago.

Head coach Paul Tait and the team from Northridge, California, were able to experience a true Alaska winter as they arrived in the middle of a typical snowy season.

But with this winter marked by unseasonably warm weather and rain, the team couldn’t really lean on their previous experience when deciding on the appropriate attire to pack.

“We did not bring any umbrellas,” Tait said with a chuckle. “It’s funny. The last couple weeks, we talked about boots and snow jackets and everything else, and then I check the weather about five days ago and I’m like, ‘Hold up a second, let’s make sure we have rain boots and different types of gear.’ But we have Southern California kids, so anything below 65, they start freaking out — so rain or snow, it didn’t matter.”

The Warriors only have three players on this year’s team who made the last trip as sophomores and are now seniors. Star forward and San Jose State University commit Tae Simmons and guard Jesse Tweneboah played in those games. Forward Dylan Shaw, a Saint Mary’s College commit, had suffered an injury in their last game before the tournament, and had to spend the entire trip on crutches.

In Heritage’s 59-36 win over Colony on Thursday in the opening round of the tournament, Shaw led the team with 21 points in his Alaska Airlines Classic debut. Simmons narrowly came in second with 20 points. That total far exceeded the eight points he was held to the last time he was on the West High court, in a 2023 tournament championship loss to Anchorage’s own Grace Christian.

“It’s always incredible coming up here,” Tait said. “We enjoyed our experience last time. We’re just trying to shake off the rust of travel and everything and also know there are a few teams that traveled even farther than us, so it was good to get the first win under our belt.”

Those three returners told teammates who were making the trip to the Alaska Airlines Classic for the first time about how unique of an opportunity it was.

“Just getting out and seeing different experiences,” Tait said. “We did the zoo last time and we’ll do the wildlife observatory Friday, dog sledding on Saturday maybe, just fun stuff.”

He told his wife shortly after they got married that he’d like to come up to Alaska with his team every four to five years to give each generation a chance to experience it — but he didn’t wait nearly as long this time.

Coming to Alaska, Alabama juggernaut gets reprieve from winter snow

Hoover High School last made the trek to the 49th state from Alabama to take part in the Alaska Airlines Classic over a decade ago, in January 2013. That was before Scott Ware was the head coach of the Buccaneers. This year’s trip is a first-time experience for every player on the team and coach on the staff.

“We had a lot of opportunities to play in different places throughout the country, and we kind of held off to see what was best for us, and when this opportunity came up, we wanted to come back,” Ware said. “We heard from the previous staff how good of a tournament it was, so we wanted to make this trip.”

When they committed to compete in the Classic and started making plans, the Alabama powerhouse program had no idea that it’d actually be warmer in Alaska than it was back home.

“It’s actually colder at home in Alabama and more snow than when we left,” Ware said. “It is what it is. We’re just happy to be here. We’ve played from Florida to the Midwest. We’ve been all over and thought this would be a great opportunity.”

There was 6 inches of snow in Orange Beach, Alabama, when they left, which is less than 4 1/2 hours from Hoover by car.

The undefeated Buccaneers brought heavy jackets and boots but didn’t think to bring their umbrellas, which would’ve been more useful.

“It’s good to travel, guys are making lifelong memories and this is a special group of guys we’ve got,” Ware said. “They’ve been special for four years now and we have a bunch of seniors who have accomplished a lot, but when you talk to them, some of the trips we’ve been on have been a bigger thing for them than winning a state championship.”

Hoover is the two-time defending Alabama state champion of the 7A division. It’s the first nationally ranked team to participate in the Classic in nearly a decade and a half, and the first top-10 ranked squad in several decades.

Ware and his team relish the chance to see some of the best competition Alaska has to offer, and they could potentially face two-time defending 4A state champion Bettye Davis East if both teams advance to Saturday’s final.

“It’s good to get out and see how people play and do things around the country,” he said. “Obviously basketball is basketball, but people approach it differently, so just to kind of see different styles throughout the country and the way they approach things is good so that we’ve seen a little bit of everything when we get to the playoffs.”

The Buccaneers are led on and off the court by 6-foot-9, 250-pound senior power forward DeWayne Brown, who is committed to play at the Division I level at the University of Tennessee.

“He’s an incredible kid, he’s an incredible person, obviously has a great skillset in basketball,” Ware said. “He does a little bit of everything for us but what people don’t see is his basketball IQ. It’s off the charts. He takes what the game gives him and plays that way.”

In Hoover’s 69-26 win over Service on Thursday, Brown scored a game-high 20 points in two and a half quarters of action before sitting out the entire fourth quarter. Even though he’s talented and physically gifted enough to take over a game and seemingly score at will, he often kicks the ball out to his teammates when they’re open for uncontested looks.

“It was just always in me to be unselfish and just play basketball the right way and make the right play,” Brown said.

After not attempting any dunks in the first quarter, Brown slammed down a quartet in the second on some alley-oops and fast breaks, which got the crowd excited.

“It just got kind of easy,” he said. “It’s fun hearing the crowd go crazy. It always kind of motivates you to keep going. I feel like once you get the crowd into the game, it makes you play a little bit harder.”

While Brown didn’t join the team until his freshman year of high school, this group has played together since the third grade and it shows in their chemistry on the court.

“Our guys love each other and they’ve been best friends for a really long time,” Ware said. “We’ve didn’t have kids move in from all over the place to form this team. These are Hoover kids, they’ve grown up together, they spend time outside of basketball together. If you see one, you always see four or five of them.”