The Kenai River Brown Bears host the Anchorage Wolverines in the final games of the regular season at 7:30 p.m. tonight and Saturday at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex.
The Brown Bears (31-23-3-1) have already clinched a playoff spot out of the North American Hockey League Midwest Division, while the Wolverines (27-24-6-1) have been eliminated from playoff contention.
The Wolverines have clinched the Club 49 Cup. Anchorage has 30 points, while the Fairbanks Ice Dogs have 26 and the Bears have 23.
There are two main things to be decided this weekend — the playoff seed for the Brown Bears and which fan wins two round-trip tickets to the Lower 48 from Alaska Airlines at the Saturday game.
The Bears are currently tied with the Chippewa (Wisconsin) Steel for the third seed. The Wisconsin Windigo have the top seed wrapped up with 77 points, while the Minnesota Wilderness are second with 73 points.
The Steel close their season with games today and Saturday against the Wilderness.
If both the Bears and Steel finish the season with the same amount of points and wins, the third seed will go to the Steel due to Chippewa’s 4-3-0-0 record against Kenai River this season.
Kenai River head coach Taylor Shaw said he’s not concerned about the playoff seed. He said that either way, the Bears will have to beat two good hockey teams to get to the final four of the Robertson Cup for the first time in franchise history.
“The biggest thing for our group is to take it day by day and focus on us,” Shaw said. “The rest will take care of itself.”
