The Kenai River Brown Bears clinched a spot in the North American Hockey League playoffs with a 3-1 victory over the Anchorage Wolverines on Friday at Ben Boeke Ice Arena in Anchorage.
“I don’t have the words to describe it yet, to be honest with you,” Kenai River head coach Taylor Shaw said. “It won’t sink in until tomorrow morning.
“I’m super happy for our guys that came back this year, and for all the pieces we added this year. Our guys continued to fight adversity through the whole year.”
The Bears were 3-16-0-0 last season when Shaw was elevated from assistant coach to interim coach. The team finished 14-41-3-2, good for the second worst record in the league.
Shaw said the Bears established the theme in training camp of loving to prove people wrong, and Kenai River did just that in winning a tight race to make it to the playoffs.
The Wisconsin Windigo have clinched the Midwest Division with 77 points, while the Minnesota Wilderness will be the No. 2 seed with 73 points.
The Bears (31-23-2-1) are in third place with 65 points, while the Chippewa (Wisconsin) Steel are in fourth with 64, the Fairbanks Ice Dogs are in fifth with 63 and the Anchorage Wolverines (26-24-6-1) are in sixth with 59.
While both the Ice Dogs and Wolverines could catch the Bears in points, the two Alaska clubs can’t catch the Bears in wins. Wins are the first tiebreaker.
Shaw said the turnaround means a lot to more than the players.
“In terms of the staff, we’re super happy,” he said. “We have a lot of people that don’t get a lot of credit, from the scouting staff to the volunteers at the rink.
“We’re all a part of this, and what an amazing feeling to turn it around in one year.”
Kenai River sputtered out of the holiday break, going 1-6-0-1. About that time, Shaw challenged the team to treat every game like a playoff game, and it paid off with a 12-5-1-0 finishing kick.
“With about 17 games left to play, we said it was playoff games the rest of the way, and the guys really embraced that,” Shaw said.
The Bears are in their 16th season and will make their eight playoff appearance, and first since 2020-21. The team was on the way to a playoff berth in 2019-20, but the pandemic canceled the season before the Bears could clinch one.
Kenai River has only won one playoff series in franchise history.
The Bears have another game left in Anchorage tonight, then finish with 7:30 p.m. games against the Wolverines on April 14 and 15 at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex.
“We still have more hockey after next game and next weekend,” Shaw said. “We have to continue building and learning to manage our group.
“It may look a little different at times, but we’re building for the first round.”
The Bears also are still in the hunt for the Club 49 Cup. Anchorage has 28, Fairbanks has 26 and the Bears have 22. Kenai River is 4-5 against Anchorage this season.
“Especially for the players from Alaska, that cup has a ton of meaning,” Shaw said.
Midway through the first period, Garett Drotts put Kenai River up 1-0 on assists from Hayden Walters and Kotaro Tsutsumi. After Anchorage broke up a two-on-one, Walters collected the puck and fed it to Drotts.
Hayden Hennen tied the game for Anchorage on the power play headed to the second period.
With 2:40 left in the second, Ben Monson scored on the power play on assists from Ryan Finch and Tsutsumi. Monson scored from the high slot by flipping the puck through heavy traffic.
Nick Stevens sealed the win, and playoff berth, with an empty-netter.
Nils Wallstrom had 46 saves for the Bears, while Eino Rissanen stopped 23 for the Wolverines. Shaw said he didn’t think the shots were that lopsided, but he added Wallstrom played well.
“He was composed back there and the guys fed off that,” Shaw said.
Friday
Brown Bears 3, Wolverines 1
Kenai River 1 1 1 —3
Anchorage 1 0 0 —1
First period — 1. Kenai River, Drotts (Walters, Tsutsumi), 9:14; 2. Anchorage, Hennen (Westin, Reineke), pp, 17:31. Penalties — Kenai River 1 for 2:00; Anchorage 2 for 4:00.
Second period — 3. Kenai River, Monson (Finch, Tsutsumi), pp, 17:20. Penalties — Kenai River 2 for 4:00; Anchorage 2 for 4:00.
Third period — 4. Kenai River, Stevens (un.), en, sh, 18:21. Penalties — Kenai River 4 for 8:00; Anchorage 4 for 8:00.
Shots on goal — Kenai River 10-8-8—26; Anchorage 13-16-18—47.
Goalies — Kenai River, Wallstrom (47 shots, 46 saves); Anchorage, Rissanen (25 shots, 23 saves).
Power plays — Kenai River 1 for 6; Anchorage 1 for 6.
