The Kenai River Brown Bears split Friday and Saturday games with the Minnesota Magicians at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex, winning 4-1 on Friday before losing 3-2 Saturday in a shootout in North American Hockey League play.
Kenai River is on a 9-5-1-1 run, including 6-4-1-1 under interim head coach Dan Bogdan. That has kept the Bears alive — barely — in the playoff race.
Kenai River is 21-27-3-3 and is 11 points behind the Janesville (Wisconsin) Jets in the race for the Midwest Division’s final playoff slot. Each team has six games left, with a win counting for two points.
“We’ve been all buying in to what Dan has been coaching,” said Eagle River’s Zach Krajnik, who had two goals and an assist Friday and has seven points in his last three games. “We’re doing it for each other and the community around us.”
Bogdan said focusing on the now and not the playoffs has been working, so there’s no reason to start worrying about the playoffs now.
“We were being hard on the puck and winning battles,” Bogdan said. “We’re just taking it shift by shift, period by period, game by game and focusing on the process.”
Minnesota is 32-20-2-0 and is ahead of the Springfield (Illinois) Jr. Blues by four points in the race for second place in the Midwest. The Magicians also have fallen six points behind division-leading Fairbanks.
The Magicians clinched a playoff berth on March 2 with a 5-3 win over the Brown Bears and left on a trip to Alaska, where they struggled initially. Minnesota lost two to Fairbanks and two to Kenai River before winning the shootout.
Minnesota assistant Gaven Bickford, in charge of the team because head coach AJ Bucchino stayed home due to the impending birth of his first child, said the Magicians are the second youngest team in the league.
Bickford said peaks and valleys are expected, and the team was at a low point Friday. He added he expects the Magicians to be on the upswing for the playoffs.
“I’m disappointed with our effort,” Bickford said. “I’d like to see us be a little harder on the puck and go to the net with more determination.”
Kenai River’s line of Krajnik, Michael Spethmann and Andy Walker was a major factor in the game, with each finishing plus-four. Spethmann had a goal, while Walker had two assists.
With the Bears winning the combined shot count in the first two periods 26-15, Krajnik struck 4 minutes, 21 seconds, into the second period, driving the net and beating Magicians goalie Ethan Haider five-hole. Markuss Komuls and JJ Boucher had assists.
Just five minutes later, Krajnik again got to the net for a goal, with Boucher and Komuls assisting again.
With 7:44 to play in the game, Minnesota’s Dawson Klein cut it to 2-1 on the power play. That would be all Bears goalie Gavin Enright would allow, making 34 saves while Haider had 35.
Minnesota was 1 for 7 on the power play.
“We got a goal on the power play, so I’m OK with it,” Bickford said. “We were moving the puck around really well, Enright just made some big saves when they needed them.”
With 4:25 to play, Spethmann sniped a pass from Krajnik bar-down, short-side for a 3-1 lead, then Vincent Weis sealed it with an empty-netter for his first goal in a Brown Bears sweater.
Krajnik said the Bears are feeling great right now, sticking to Bogdan’s systems but being creative within those systems.
“We’re in it for each other,” he said. “We’re doing it for the guys left and right of us. When you have that bond, you’re unbeatable.”
Saturday, Minnesota jumped out to a 2-0 lead with second-period goals by Chris Konin and TJ Sagissor.
The Bears jumped back to 2-1 a little over two minutes into the third period, when Komuls scored on assists from Spethmann and Sutton McDonald. Boucher then tied it with 1:20 to play on an assist from Walker.
Jake Seitz and Konin then scored in the shootout for Minnesota, while Magicians goalie Jack Robbel stopped the first two Kenai River shooters.
The Bears host the Fairbanks Ice Dogs on Thursday at 7 p.m. and Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
Friday
Brown Bears 4, Magicians 1
Minnesota 0 0 1 — 1
Kenai River 0 2 2 — 4
First period — none. Penalties — Minnesota 3 for 8:00; Kenai River 4 for 10:00.
Second period — 1. Kenai River, Krajnik (Komuls, Boucher), 4:21; 2. Kenai River, Krajnik (Boucher, Komuls), 9:25. Penalties — Minnesota 2 for 4:00; Kenai River 1 for 2:00.
Third period — 3. Minnesota, Klein (Kruse, Buhl), pp, 12:16; 4. Kenai River, Spethmann (Krajnik, Walker), 15:35; 5. Kenai River, Weis (Walker), en, 19:48. Penalties — Minnesota 2 for 4:00; Kenai River 4 for 10:00.
Shots on goal — Minnesota 7-8-20—35; Kenai River 11-15-13—39.
Goalies — Minnesota, Haider (38 shots, 35 saves); Kenai River, Enright (35 shots, 34 saves).
Power plays — Minnesota 1 for 7; Kenai River 0 for 4.
Kenai River Brown Bears goaltender Gavin Enright makes a save on Minnesota Magicians forward John Keranen, in front of Bears forward Justin Daly, Friday at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex. (Photo by Jeff Helminiak/Peninsula Clarion)
Kenai River Brown Bears forward Michael Spethmann (not pictured) beats Minnesota Magicians goalie Ethan Haider to the near post with a shot in the third period Friday, March 15, 2019, at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex. (Photo by Jeff Helminiak/Peninsula Clarion)
