The Fairbanks Ice Dogs defeated the Kenai River Brown Bears 5-4 in a shootout Friday in North American Hockey League action at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex.
The Ice Dogs improve to 18-26-1-6 and are tied for sixth place in the Midwest Division, while the Bears are 14-32-4-2 and are in eighth in the division.
The two squads are now tied for second in the Club 49 Cup. The Anchorage Wolverines lead with 31, while the Bears and Ice Dogs have 14.
The same two teams play Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at the sports complex.
In the shootout, Nolan Abraham scored for the Ice Dogs in the second round, while Tyler Krivtsov kept the Brown Bears off the board for the first two rounds.
Josh Austin then buried his chance in the third round to end it.
The Brown Bears led 2-1 after the first period, with goals from Luke Lizak, assisted by Riley Mullins and Roope Tuomioksa, and Joel Hanson, assisted by Gavin Duckworth and Luke Hause, sandwiched around a goal from Abraham.
Kenai River head coach Taylor Shaw said the Bears got great offensive production from defensemen in the game. Lizak, a defenseman, scored his first NAHL goal in his ninth game for the Bears, while Hanson, also a defenseman, scored his first NAHL goal in his 33rd game for the Bears.
In the second period, the Ice Dogs jumped on top on goals from Adam Timm and Luca Ricciardi. Lizak, assisted by Andy Larson, tied it at 3, but Abraham put the Ice Dogs up 4-3 headed to the third.
“I thought we turned too many pucks over in the second period,” Shaw said. “I liked how we responded in the third period to tie it up.”
With 6:12 left in the game, Dylan Contreras tied it on assists from Samuel Sisik and Tuomioksa.
In the overtime, Shaw said the Bears had two goals disallowed — one because it was ruled the puck never went in, the other because time had run out.
Marks Slavinskis-Repe had 28 saves for the Bears, while Marcus Ouellet saved 2 of 3 for the Ice Dogs, and Krivtsov stopped 28 of 31.
William Esterbrooks, a tendered defenseman for the Bears, made his debut and Shaw said he played well. Esterbrooks came straight to the Bears from Minnesota high school hockey, where he played for the Class 1A title Saturday for Hermantown and lost 3-1 to St. Cloud Cathedral.
