The Kenai River Brown Bears defeated the Anchorage Wolverines 6-5 on Friday at the Sullivan Arena in North American Hockey League play.
With their second straight victory against the Wolverines, the Bears now have 11 in the battle for the Club 49 Cup, while Fairbanks has 18 and the Wolverines have eight.
Kenai River remains in seventh place in the Midwest Division at 15-20-1-2, good for 33 points. The Springfield (Illinois) Jr. Blues and Chippewa (Wisconsin) Steel are tied for the fourth and final playoff spot out of the division with 40 points.
The Wolverines, at 24-10-2-1, and Ice Dogs are tied for second with 51 points, just two behind the Wisconsin Windigo.
Andy Larson, assisted by John Ross and Andrew Politoski, scored the game-winner for Kenai River with just 51 seconds remaining.
Kenai River head coach Taylor Shaw said Larson got the puck in the neutral zone, carried it into the zone and shot from the top of the circle.
“I don’t know if he got deflected on his initial shot, or it went straight in,” Shaw said. “We’ll take it. It doesn’t matter.”
Kenai River scored first in the first period when Gavin Jensen struck, assisted by Wes Berg and Jake Georgy. Drew Nelson had it tied headed to the second on a power-play goal.
Just 4:19 into the second period, the Wolverines were up 3-1 on goals by Daniel Bagnole and Cole Christian.
“We started flat, with poor management of the puck and some lack of details, and pretty soon they’re up 3-1,” Shaw said.
Shaw took a media timeout, allowing the team to reset. The line of Carter McCormick, Joseph Yoon and Samuel Sisik then came alive.
“They were our energy bug tonight,” Shaw said.
The Bears scored four straight in the second period to go up 5-3.
Sisik scored on assists from John Ross and Yoon, Colten Nestler scored on assists from Riley Mullen and Berg, Sisik scored on assists by Yoon and McCormick, and McCormick scored on Yoon and Sisik assists.
Shaw said the Wolverines were able to slow Kenai River’s momentum when Bagnole scored with 57 seconds left in the second period for a 5-4 game.
The Bears were outshot 14-3 in the third period, but Shaw said his team had to kill off a few penalties and was doing game management just fine.
When Jackson Stimple scored with 6:31 left to tie it, Shaw said it was a harmless shot that took a bad bounce.
Mitchell Mccusker made 35 saves for the Bears, while William Lubimov stopped 19 for the Wolverines.
“I thought he did a good job trying to get whistles when we needed them,” Shaw said of Mccusker. “It’s hot in there, so anytime we can get a breather and try to cool off for a second, that helps.”
The teams play again at the Sullivan Arena on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
Friday
Brown Bears 6, Wolverines 5
Ken 1 4 1 —6
Anc 1 3 1 —5
First period — 1. Kenai River, Jensen (Berg, Georgy), 5:15. 2. Anchorage, Nelson (Bednarik, Ushio), pp, 12:34. Penalties — Kenai River 1 for 2:00.
Second period — 3. Anchorage, Bagnole (un.), 4:10. 4. Anchorage, Christian (un.), 4:19. 5. Kenai River, Sisik (Ross, Yoon), 5:30. 6. Kenai River, Nestler (Mullen, Berg), 7:33. 7. Kenai River, Sisik (Yoon, McCormick), 14:04. 8. Kenai River, McCormick (Yoon, Sisik), 16:00. 9. Anchorage, Bagnole (un.), 19:03. Penalties — none.
Third period — 10. Anchorage, Stimple (un.), 13:29. 11. Kenai River, Larson (Ross, Politoski), 19:09. Penalties — Kenai River 2 for 4:00; Anchorage 1 for 2:00.
Shots on goal — Kenai River 9-13-3—25; Anchorage 13-13-14—40.
Goalies — Kenai River, Mccusker (40 shots, 35 saves); Anchorage, Lubimov (25 shots, 19 saves).
Power plays — Kenai River 0 for 1; Anchorage 1 for 3.
