Mike Peluso
When UAA-UAF hockey flits across my mind, memories drift back to the late 1980s, when Mike Peluso was the Seawolves’ cornerstone defenseman and Ricky Pitta was the Nanooks’ spark plug.
Peluso was 6-foot-4 with long arms, easy-going off the ice, but 200 pounds of sandpaper on it – he became an NHL enforcer and Stanley Cup champion. With a stick in his hands, he covered a lot of ice. Pitta was a 5-foot-5 fire hydrant, so fiercely competitive he probably challenged his road roommate to see who could fall asleep first.
Pitta’s small stature put his shoulders squarely in the path of Peluso’s cross-checks. Pitta, a subtle master of the slash to the ankles, gave as good as he got. Remember, this was hockey in the 80s, when referees largely shrugged at slashes, hooks and interference that would routinely be whistled today. (Not to put too fine a point on it, but one of Peluso’s teammates, Scott McLeod, put so much vigor into his slashes that he answered to nickname that rang true for the era – “Axe.”)
Those were angry times. Angry, beautiful times.
Rick Pitta
Mike Peluso and Ricky Pitta did not much like each other. The Seawolves and Nanooks did not much like each other. Fans of the teams did not much like each other. Then there was the whole Anchorage-Fairbanks narrative, where a person’s view of it was no doubt skewed by their address – Anchorage, the big city, or soft city; Fairbanks, the frontier, or the sticks; Anchorage, fortunate, or spoiled; Fairbanks, hard-scrabble, or hick city. Anchorage, easy living, or sane living; Fairbanks, practically the pristine wilderness, or, as one Anchorage columnist often put it: Not the end of the world, but you can see it from there.
In any event, that was an annual intrastate rivalry, as many meetings as eight in a season back in the day, a series of collisions with nothing short of state supremacy at stake. The locker room of the winning team rocked; in the loser’s dressing room, it was so quiet you could hear a dream die.
Finally, after two-plus years of absence prompted by the death of the Seawolves program to budget cuts, UAA-UAF returns this weekend when the Nanooks entertain the Seawolves in games at the Carlson Center on Friday and Saturday nights. Returning too is the Alaska Airlines Governor’s Cup, the six-game season series that determines state bragging rights.
This rivalry that dates to the 1979-80 season is back on tap largely because stalwart Kathie Bethard – mother of former Seawolves defenseman Todd Bethard, deft administrator, fundraiser extraordinaire and for decades the ice-level scorekeeper at Sullivan Arena – and her crew of volunteers resurrected the UAA program. The Seawolves are back, under the guidance of first-year head coach Matt Shasby, the former UAA and Alaska Aces blueliner. He grew up in Eagle River and all he has ever known is UAA-UAF – he was born in 1980, the Seawolves-Nanooks rivalry began in the 1979-80 season. He was a spectator of the rivalry, he played in it, and now he will coach in it.
A rivalry unlike any other. It begins again this Friday.
GET YOUR TICKETS NOW‼️
🎟️ https://t.co/gkTKga2uv1 pic.twitter.com/s7VvuaW9D0
— Alaska Hockey (@NanooksHockey) December 7, 2022
The UAA-UAF history is replete with so many elite players that you can hardly remember them all. UAA has featured Dennis Sorenson, Joey Hayse, Dean Larson, Rob Conn, Paul Krake, Derek Donald, Curtis Glencross, Matt Bailey, Nathan Lawson, Olivier Mantha…UAF has featured Steve Moria, Dean Fedorchuk, Tavis MacMillan, Dallas Ferguson, Wylie Rogers, Kyle Greentree, Aaron Voros, Colton Parayko, Colton Beck, Cody Kunyk…
Since Brush Christiansen and Ric Schafer, the architects of the Seawolves and Nanooks, respectively, back in the day, alumni of each school have gone on to become bench bosses in the rivalry. MacMillan and Ferguson were head coaches at UAF, John Hill and Shasby at UAA. Hell, Don Lucia was Shafer’s assistant, then Christiansen’s assistant, then head coach at UAF before going on to glory at Colorado College and Minnesota (two national titles).
The series has moved from tiny rinks – on-campus ice at both schools – to the Big Dipper and Carlson Center in Fairbanks. UAA played decades at Sullivan Arena, then moved back on campus, where it currently plays. Both UAA and UAF played briefly in the late 80s in the now-defunct Great West Hockey Conference, which included U.S. International University (San Diego) and Northern Arizona (Flagstaff). Then both were NCAA Division I independents.
UAA owned the upper hand early in the rivalry, going 16-0 the first two seasons against UAF when both were Division II teams before becoming D-I indies in the mid-80s. UAF has closed the gap well as the rivalry nears 200 games of history.
The Governor’s Cup dates to the 1993-94 season, when the teams began playing in separate conferences – UAA in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, UAF in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association.
Getting pumped for some rival Hockey. Connor’s team, UAF, playing his Dads alma mater, University of Alaska Anchorage this weekend and next for The Governor’s Cup! 🎉👍🏻@UAASeawolves @NanooksHockey pic.twitter.com/k53OGbEZER
— darlene mylymok (@mylymok) December 8, 2022
Neither program belongs to a conference now. They’re D-I independents, just like that were as the 80s shouldered into the 90s.
Though the Seawolves own an advantage in the history of a rivalry that has covered generations, the Nanooks own the advantage in the Governor’s Cup. On the ice, they have won 19 of the 27 Cups; officially, UAF’s advantage is 16-11 – the Nanooks had to vacate three Cups because of NCAA violations for, basically, shoddy administrative oversight. On the ice, the Nanooks have won seven of the eight Cups that required a shootout. UAF has won 11 straight Cups – yes, 11 – on the ice, eighth straight when you throw out the three Cups they were required to vacate to get correct with the NCAA. Think of it this way – whole classes of Nanooks have not known anything other than winning the Cup, whole classes of Seawolves have never touched the Cup.
Now, after two seasons without the Governor’s Cup and more than two seasons since UAA and UAF last battled, it’s game on.
Time to make more history.
Alaska Airlines Governor’s Cup
College Hockey
Today
UAA at UAF, 7:07pm, Carlson Center
Saturday
UAA at UAF, 7:07pm, Carlson Center
Friday, Dec. 16
UAF at UAA, 7:07pm, Seawolf Sports Center
Saturday, Dec. 17
UAF at UAA, 6:07pm, Seawolf Sports Center
Friday, Jan. 27
UAF at UAA, 7:07pm, Seawolf Sports Center
Saturday, Jan. 28
UAA at UAF, 7:07pm, Carlson Center