The Kenai River Brown Bears finished up the North American Hockey League Showcase in Blaine, Minnesota, by defeating the Danbury (Connecticut) Hat Tricks 5-1 on Friday, then losing in overtime 5-4 to the Minnesota Mallards on Saturday.
Kenai River sits in third place in the Midwest Division at 4-2-1-0. The Hat Tricks are 1-5-1-0, while the Mallards are 3-2-0-0.
The Brown Bears now return to Alaska for a home-opening series against the Janesville (Wisconsin) Jets, who are last in the Midwest Division at 2-4-0-1.
The games are Friday and Saturday, Oct. 4 and 5, at 7:30 p.m., then Sunday at 5 p.m. Those 12 and under, and over 60, get into the Sunday game for free.
“Like we talk about every week, there’s no easy night in the division,” Kenai River head coach Taylor Shaw said. “Anybody can win on any given night. So we’re going to have to come ready to rock.”
The team got back to Alaska on Monday night and took a memorable bus ride from Anchorage to Kenai.
“The bus ride down was awesome,” Shaw said. “The guys were glued to the window, obviously taking pictures, and it was a pretty neat thing for them.
“They were asking a lot of questions to the guys that have been around.”
Shaw also said it was nice pulling into the parking lot of the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex and seeing the frame of the new fieldhouse.
Friday against Danbury, after a scoreless first period, Kenai River struck first on a Jack Clarke goal — his first in the NAHL — assisted by Greye Rampton. The Hat Tricks equalized a minute later on the power play, but the Bears led going to the final period thanks to a goal by Brady Engelkes, assisted by Andy Larson.
The Bears then dominated the third period. Luke Lizak scored with help from Carter McCormick, James Lyver scored on a Michael Fiedorczuk helper, and Thomas Gunderson had a power-play goal with help from Larson.
Mitchell Mccusker stopped 26 for the Bears, while Jack Fialkoff stopped 29 for Danbury.
“I thought we made some good adjustments on our day off,” Shaw said. “We got back to playing our brand of hockey — moved pucks, getting out of the zone efficiently, transitioning really well.”
Saturday, the Bears jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals by Luke Hause, assisted by Jackson Ebbott and Engelkes, and Joseph Yoon, assisted by Oliver Langland.
The Mallards then stormed back with three goals in the second period to take the lead.
“I didn’t like our second period,” Shaw said. “That’s what kind of cost us. We gave away all the momentum.”
The Bears did manage to leave the second tied at 3 on a Clarke goal.
“He was one of the top leading scorers in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League last year, so we knew it was in there,” Shaw said of Clarke.
In the third period, the Mallards took the lead again before Andy Larson, assisted by Engelkes, tied it up with 12:31 to play.
“We went down in the third period and then tied it back up, so it was a good response,” Shaw said.
The Mallards then won it 2:35 into overtime.
Leif Ekblad made 20 saves in his debut for the Bears, while Richard Rafaj stopped 27 for the Mallards.
Shaw is also happy to be back in town for a Coaches Show that is new this year. Every week the team is in town, Shaw, assistant Dean Weasler and three players will be doing a show put on by a sponsor.
The first show is from 6 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 1, at Buckets Sports Grill. There also will be a bucket at the sponsor throughout the week, where a purchase gets fans a name in the bucket. At the end of the week, a name will be drawn for two tickets to the first prime-time (Friday or Saturday) game of the week.
The show also will be streamed on Facebook Live on the Kenai River Brown Bears Facebook page.
Friday
Brown Bears 5, Hat Tricks 1
Dan 0 1 0 —1
Ken 0 2 3 —5
First period — none. Penalties — Kenai River 2 for 4:00.
Second period — 1. Kenai River, Clarke (Rampton), 5:53. 2. Danbury, Omicioli (Jensen, Tournas), pp, 6:54. 3. Kenai River, Engelkes (Larson), 12:20. Penalties — Kenai River 3 for 6:00.
Third period — 4. Kenai River, Lizak (McCormick), 13:28; 5. Kenai River, Lyver (Fiedorczuk), 16:39. 6. Kenai River, Gunderson (Larson), pp, 19:30. Penalties — Danbury 2 for 4:00; Kenai River 1 for 3:00.
Shots on goal — Danbury 11-9-7—27; Kenai River 11-11-12—34.
Goalies — Danbury, Fialkoff (34 shots, 29 saves); Kenai River, Mccusker (27 shots, 26 saves).
Saturday
Mallards 5, Brown Bears 4, OT
Ken 2 1 1 0 —4
Min 0 3 1 1 —5
First period — 1. Kenai River, Hause (Ebbott, Engelkes), pp, 2:32. 2. Kenai River, Yoon (Langland), 9:10. Penalties — Minnesota 1 for 2:00.
Second period — 3. Minnesota, Kohnen (Muller, Thompson), 0:31. 4. Minnesota, Kohnen (Pyle), 5:04; 5. Minnesota, Fredenberg (Koropatnicki), 11:03. 6. Kenai River, Clarke (un.), 16:43. Penalties — Minnesota 1 for 2:00.
Third period — 7. Minnesota, Kohnen (Thompson, Pyle), pp, 5:46. 8. Kenai River, Larson (Engelkes), 7:29. Penalties — Kenai River 1 for 2:00.
Shots on goal — Kenai River 13-8-9-1—31; Minnesota 5-12-6-2—25.
Goalies — Kenai River, Ekblad (25 shots, 20 saves); Minnesota, Rafaj (31 shots, 27 saves).
