FAIRBANKS — A four-game Thanksgiving holiday trip to Alaska is a lot to ask of any hockey team. Add the fact that the team making the trip was the Michigan Tech Huskies, and every point available during the four games was necessary after a slow start to the season.

With a 2-1 victory on Saturday night over the host Alaska Nanooks, the Huskies came away from its road trip with three wins and a loss in a shootout, good for 10 of a possible 12 points.

The feat was even more impressive considering the fact that the Huskies won both games over the Nanooks without head coach Mel Pearson, who had to return to the continental United States after the Saturday game against Alaska-Anchorage due to a family emergency.

“We were happy we were able to get this done for Mel,” said assistant coach Joe Shawhan. “This is a big deal. We dedicate this weekend to him.

“It would have been very hard on him if we would have left points on the table and those points would have bit us on the back end for maybe a league championship.”

It was by no means an easy night for the Huskies.

The Nanooks jumped all over the Huskies through the first 10 minutes of the contest, outshooting Tech 7-2 during that stretch. If not for freshman goaltender Angus Redmond, the Huskies might have found themselves having to battle from behind rather than even through that salvo.

Redmond surrendered just one goal on 27 Nanooks shots in the contest. The rookie is now 6-1-1 on the season with a 1.46 goals against average.

“The puck is big for him right now,” said Shawhan of Redmond. “I was a goaltender, I know how that feels. Right now he is seeing everything well. He’s on top of everything. He’s aggressive. He’s up on the edge of his crease. We are getting as good of goaltending right now as we could possibly have.”

Assistant captain Brent Baltus broke the scoreless tie at 11:41. After Redmond had made a key stop on a Nanooks’ 2-on-1, the Huskies’ assistant captain won a faceoff in his own end. Tech eventually got the puck down the ice where senior Reid Sturos could find Baltus for the goal.

Sturos was a big part of the weekend for the Huskies, as not only did he pick up the assist Saturday, but he was one of the main reasons the Huskies held the Nanooks to 1-for-15 on the penalty kill including 0-for-6 Saturday.

“That’s a big-time effort for our guys,” said Shawhan. “It was just a good all-around effort.”

The Huskies built on their lead in the second period when they had an opportunity with a faceoff in the offensive zone during a 4-on-4 situation. After a faceoff win, the Huskies got the puck into the slot. A failed clear by the Nanooks dropped into a spot where assistant captain Shane Hanna could get to it and he blasted a shot past Alaska goaltender Jesse Jenks at 7:35.

The Nanooks responded less than six minutes later when Marcus Basara fell over top of Redmond and pushed a rebound past him at 13:00.

Redmond bounced back in the third, along with the Huskies’ defense, and kept all six shot Nanooks’ shots from finding the back of the net.

“Our defensive corps was outstanding,” said Shawhan. “Those guys are just, just tremendous…The whole crew played absolutely phenomenal.”

Shawhan was also proud of the defensive effort put forth by the Huskies’ forwards.

“I liked our forwards staying on the right side of the puck,” said Shawhan. “We talked after the second period and we said that if that one-goal advantage has to hold up, let’s make sure it holds up, and our guys did a great job of making sure that happened.”

FOUR STRAIGHT: After falling behind 1-0 just 9:13 into Friday’s contest, the Huskies struck four straight times to win the game, 4-1.

Senior Tyler Heinonen got things going with a goal just under a minute after the Nanooks took the lead.

Sophomore Jake Lucchini, junior Joel L’Esperance, and senior Chris Leibinger all found the back of the net over the game’s final 50 minutes of action.

GETTING OFFENSIVE: Leibinger is learning to embrace his role as a forward. With his fifth goal of the season Friday, Leibinger will now set a new career high with every goal he scores. He is also one point shy of his career-high of eight.