The visiting Kenai River Brown Bears lost 4-3 to the Janesville (Wisconsin) Jets on Thursday for their fourth straight defeat.
The Bears stay in Janesville for the weekend, playing Friday and Saturday at 4:05 p.m. AKST.
The Bears fall to 24-16-3-3, remaining in second place in the North American Hockey League Midwest Division. The Bears have 54 points, while first-place Fairbanks has 69, second-place Chippewa (Wisconsin) Steel has 48 and third-place Janesville has 39.
Thursday, Janesville took a 2-0 lead after two periods on goals from Nick Nardella and Parker Lindauer.
Kenai River marched back in the first 7 minutes, 50 seconds, of the third period. Anchorage’s Skylar Gutierrez, assisted by Laudon Poellinger and Cody Moline, scored, then Logan Ritchie, assisted by Adam Szubert and Eagle River’s Zach Krajnik, scored on the power play.
But in a wild swing of momentum, Charlie Schoen and Brandon McNamara scored in the next 1:14 for a 4-2 lead. Ryan Green, assisted by Anchorage’s Max Osborne and Krajnik, cut it to 4-3 with 3:47 to play, but the Bears couldn’t find the equalizer.
Grant Riley stopped 33 for the Jets, while Landon Pavlisin saved 31 for the Bears.
Thursday
Jets 4, Brown Bears 3
Kenai River 0 0 3 —3
Janesville 1 1 2 —4
First period — 1. Janesville, Nardella (Novak, Lindauer), 18:01. Penalties — none.
Second period — 2. Janesville, Lindauer (Nardella, Novak), 11:51. Penalties — Kenai River 2 for 4:00; Janesville 1 for 2:00.
Third period — 3. Kenai River, Gutierrez (Poellinger, Moline), 3:52; 4. Kenai River, Ritchie (Szubert, Krajnik), pp, 7:50; 5. Janesville, Schoen (Thompson, Halverson), 8:10; 6. Janesville, McNamara (Engelkes, Sabo), 9:04; 7. Kenai River, Green (Osborne, Krajnik), 16:13. Penalties — Kenai River 4 for 16:00; Janesville 4 for 8:00.
Shots on goal — Kenai River 8-13-13—36; Janesville 19-10-6—35.
Goalies — Kenai River, Pavlisin (35 shots, 31 saves); Janesville, Riley (36 shots, 33 saves).
Power plays — Kenai River 1 for 3; Janesville 0 for 3.
