The Kenai River Brown Bears defeated the Anchorage Wolverines 5-4 in a shootout Friday in North American Hockey League play at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex.
With the victory, the Brown Bears move into third place in the Midwest Division and set a new franchise record for wins.
“There were a lot of big things tonight for the group,” Kenai River head coach Taylor Shaw said. “There’s just a lot of great things the guys keep doing and it’s been awesome to be a part of.”
The Brown Bears improved to 32-23-3-1, giving them 68 points. Meanwhile, the Chippewa (Wisconsin) Steel lost 2-1 to the Minnesota Wilderness to stay stuck on 66 points.
The Wisconsin Windigo have the top seed, while the Wilderness are locked into No. 2. The Bears can clinch the No. 3 seed with a Minnesota loss today, or a Bears victory or extra-time loss.
Kenai River faces Anchorage at 7:30 p.m. tonight, with two round-trip tickets to the Lower 48 on Alaska Airlines set to be given away. Shaw said a big crowd is expected.
The win also meant this year’s team eclipsed the 31-25-2-2 record of the 2011-12 team of head coach Oliver David for most wins.
Like everything, it didn’t come easy against Anchorage, which is now 27-24-6-2. The Bears are 5-6-0-0 against the Wolverines this season.
After Soldotna’s Trent Powell continued to torture his hometown team by scoring for Anchorage with 2:49 left to send the game to overtime, the shootout went all the way to five rounds until Kenai River’s Ben Monson had the first goal to end it.
“It was rocking in here again tonight,” Shaw said of the announced attendance of 2,716. “They certainly got their money’s worth.”
Owen Hanson gave the Bears a 1-0 lead after the first period. Revelin Mack drew Anchorage even in the second, but Jacob Zwirecki had the Bears up 2-1 headed to the third.
Just over seven minutes into the third period, Ryan Finch put the Bears up 3-1, but Anchorage got goals from Kyle Bauer with 10 minutes to play and Luke Anderson with 9:22 to play to tie it.
The rapid-fire scoing kept coming when Kotaro Tsutsumi put the Bears up 4-3 with 8:56 left.
Powell then forced overtime with his goal. The 19-year-old is in his first year with the Wolverines and is committed to Division I Long Island University. He is second in the league in goals for defensemen and tied for eighth in points for defensemen.
A lot of Powell’s work has come against the Brown Bears. At the sports complex, where Powell grew up playing, he now has four goals and three assists in five games. In 11 games against the Bears, Powell has six goals and seven assists.
“You gotta give credit where credit is due,” Shaw said. “We were talking about him on the bench. Some of the things he does, like take a puck off the glass in the neutral zone and make a pass with poise and patience. He’s a nice hockey player.”
Nils Wallstrom got the final word in the game by stopping all five Anchorage shooters in the shootout. Wallstrom missed last Saturday’s game against Anchorage with a minor injury.
“He was calm, patient and poised,” Shaw said of Wallstrom.
Wallstrom had 30 saves, while Eino Rissanen stopped 47 for Anchorage.
Friday
Brown Bears 5, Wolverines 4, SO
Anchorage 0 1 3 0 0 —4
Kenai River 1 1 2 0 1 —5
First period — 1. Kenai River, Hanson (Stevens, L. Anderson), 18:00. Penalties — Anchorage 1 for 2:00.
Second period — 2. Anchorage, Mack (Reineke, Bauer), pp, 6:12; 3. Kenai River, Zwirecki (Stevens, Hanson), 10:42. Penalties — Kenai River 2 for 4:00.
Third period — 4. Kenai River, Finch (Monrean, Newhouse), 7:01; 5. Anchorage, Bauer (Nikolayenya, Powell), pp, 10:00; 6. Anchorage, Anderson (Coo. Morris, Allen), 10:38; 7. Kenai River, Tsutsumi (Drotts, L. Anderson), 11:04; 8. Anchorage, Powell (Westin, Reineke), 17:11. Penalties — Anchorage 1 for 2:00; Kenai River 1 for 2:00.
Overtime — none. Penalties — none.
Shootout — Anchorage 0 (Bauer NG, Haula NG, Westin NG, Mack NG, Reineke NG); Kenai River 1 (Lockwood NG, Newhouse NG, Tsutsumi NG, Drotts NG, Monson G).
Shots on goal — Anchorage 11-8-13-2—34; Kenai River 18-17-10-6—51.
Goalies — Anchorage, Rissanen (51 shots, 47 saves); Kenai River, Wallstrom (34 shots, 30 saves).
Power plays — Anchorage 2 for 3; Kenai River 0 for 2.
