Brown Bears, Wolverines split the weekend

The Kenai River Brown Bears and the Anchorage Wolverines played to a North American Hockey League split Friday and Saturday at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex.

The Wolverines won 4-1 on Friday before the Bears bounced back for a 3-1 victory Saturday.

Fairbanks has 18 in the battle for the Club 49 Cup, while the Brown Bears have nine and Anchorage has eight.

The Brown Bears are 14-20-1-2, good for 31 points and seventh place in the Midwest Division. The Springfield (Illinois) Jr. Blues hold the fourth and final playoff spot out of the division with 40 points. The Wolverines are in second place at 24-9-2-1.

The same two teams play Friday and Saturday, Jan. 24 and 25, at the Sullivan Arena in Anchorage. Both games start at 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, the Alaska rivals played in front of a packed house due to free admission thanks to Boys and Girls Clubs of the Kenai Peninsula.

Kenai River went into the final period down 1-0, but came out on the attack. With 11:25 left in the game, Eagle River’s Carter McCormick tied the game on assists from Joseph Yoon and William Esterbrooks.

“It was obviously pretty packed, right?” Kenai River head coach Taylor Shaw said. “We could feel their momentum there in the third period, when we started to push a little bit.

“Then you get one, and the tide’s kind of tilted a little bit. We just kind of rolled the wave.”

McCormick said he grew up playing against several of the Anchorage players. He said it was a nice time to get his first goal against the Wolverines.

“We decided to get pucks to the net, traffic to the net, and bang it home,” McCormick said.

Up until McCormick’s goal, Anchorage goalie Roberto Leonardo Henriquez had allowed just one goal all weekend.

McCormick scored on a rebound, and so did Dario Lass with the game-winner with 9:58 to play. Jake Georgy and Austin Petersen assisted.

“That was a resilient win, right?” Shaw said. “That’s the group we’ve had all year. We’re still clawing, trying to find a way to get things done.”

Kenai River still had to hold off Anchorage over the last half of the third period. Mitchell Mccusker, who made 31 saves, was able to keep Anchorage of the board and win a battle with Leonardo Henriquez, who had 30 saves.

“They are a heck of a hockey club,” Shaw said of the Wolverines. “They’re going to get their looks, and you need a goalie to make saves.

“I thought our group did a pretty good job trying to block pucks or clear pucks when needed.”

With 28 seconds left, one minute after he had missed an empty net from the blue line, Andy Larson iced the game with an empty-netter. McCormick and Colton Nestler assisted.

In the first period, Kenai River was able to fight off 1:23 of a five-on-three, but Jakub Bednarik scored later in the period to give Anchorage the lead.

In the second period, the Bears had to kill 1:26 of a five-on-three, with Anchorage striking the pipe during the power play.

“We dealt with the situation,” McCormick said of the penalty kills. “We didn’t look down. We just went out there and killed it.”

With 7:16 left in the second period, new acquisition Wes Berg had a chance to tie it on a penalty shot, but Leonardo Henriquez was up to the challenge.

In addition to Berg, the banged-up Bears also had affiliate players Koen Burkholder and Andrew Politoski in the lineup. Berg arrived on the central Kenai Peninsula late Friday.

“He tried a good move,” McCormick said of Berg’s penalty shot. “It didn’t work, so we just picked him up and kept going.”

Friday, the Wolverines grabbed a 2-0 lead after the first period on strikes from Merit Waldrop and Daniel Bagnole.

Kenai River cut it to 2-1 in the second period when Lass scored with help from Gavin Jensen and Esterbrooks.

With 13:58 left in the game, Anchorage went up 3-1 on a power-play goal by Duke Gentzler. Bednarik then finished off the scoring.

Leonardo Henriquez had 35 saves for the Wolverines, while Owen Zenone stopped 26 for the Brown Bears.

Friday

Wolverines 4, Brown Bears 1

Anc 2 0 2 —4

Ken 0 1 0 —1

First period — 1. Anchorage, Waldrop (Riego De Dios, Frawner), 3:32. 2. Anchorage, Bagnole (Nelson, Devlin), 6:40. Penalties — Kenai River 1 for 2:00.

Second period — 3. Kenai River, Lass (Jensen, Esterbrooks), 14:05. Penalties — Anchorage 1 for 2:00; Kenai River 1 for 2:00.

Third period — 4. Anchorage, Gentzler (Bagnole, Devlin), pp, 6:02. 5. Anchorage, Bednarik (Devlin, Evert), 15:59. Penalties — Anchorage 4 for 8:00; Kenai River 4 for 8:00.

Shots on goal — Anchorage 9-9-12—30; Kenai River 12-13-11—36.

Goalies — Anchorage, Leonardo Henriquez (36 shots, 35 saves); Kenai River, Zenone (30 shots, 26 saves).

Saturday

Brown Bears 3, Wolverines 1

Anc 1 0 0 —1

Ken 0 0 3 —3

First period — 1. Anchorage, Bednarik (Devlin, Christian), 12:05. Penalties — Kenai River 2 for 4:00.

Second period — none. Penalties — Anchorage 4 for 19:00; Kenai River 4 for 19:00.

Third period — 2. Kenai River, McCormick (Yoon, Esterbrooks), 8:35; 3. Kenai River, Lass (Georgy, Petersen), 10:02; 4. Kenai River, Larson (McCormick, Nestler), en, 19:32. Penalties — none.

Shots on goal — Anchorage 11-13-8—32; Kenai River 9-13-10—32.

Goalies — Anchorage, Leonardo Henriquez (32 shots, 30 saves); Kenai River, Mccusker (32 shots, 21 saves).

Power plays — Anchorage 0 for 4; Kenai River 0 for 2.