Brown Bears get 1 point out of 2-game set with Ice Dogs

The Fairbanks Ice Dogs defeated the Kenai River Brown Bears 5-2 on Friday and 2-1 in a shootout on Saturday in North American Hockey League action at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex.

The Ice Dogs take over the lead in the Club 49 Cup with nine points, while the Anchorage Wolverines have six and the Bears have three.

Fairbanks is now tied for third place with the Chippewa (Wisconsin) Steel in the Midwest Division with a 11-3-1-2 record good for 25 points.

The Bears have lost seven straight at home and are in sixth place in the division at 8-12-1-2, good for 19 points.

Kenai River has played the most games in the division, in some cases by a healthy margin. The Ice Dogs and Springfield (Illinois) Jr. Blues have only played 17, while the Bears have played 23.

Add in that the Bears have played 15 home games vs. five road games and it’s clear the Bears have some ground to make up after this bye week.

Kenai River plays at Fairbanks on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 29 and 30, at 7:30 p.m. That starts a 10-game road trip. The Bears don’t return to the sports complex until Jan. 10.

“We’re going to go on a bye week here this coming week, then we started talking about it’ll be a new season for us,” Kenai River head coach Taylor Shaw said. “I think that’ll be good.”

Shaw said Saturday night was a good step forward after the coach was not happy with the way his team played Friday.

After a scoreless first period, Brady Engelkes, assisted by Luke Lizak, put the Bears up 1-0. Fairbanks answered before the period was over on a power-play goal by Cole Burke.

That game would stay 1-1 through overtime.

“There was chances, don’t get me wrong,” Shaw said. “But it was a pretty even, close game the whole way.”

In the shootout, Luca Ricciardi of the Ice Dogs and Andy Larson of the Brown Bears each scored in the first round of two.

Ian Norkevicus then scored in the next round to put Fairbanks over the top.

Mitchell Mccusker had 45 saves for the Bears, while Charlie Menard stopped 27 for the Ice Dogs.

“I though Mitch played well all night and gave us a chance to win,” Shaw said. “He was really good, so it’s not on him, especially in the shootout.”

Friday, the Bears took the 2-0 lead after the first period when Engelkes scored on Greye Rampton and John Ross assists, and Joseph Yoon scored on the power play with help from Rampton and Jack Clarke.

“We got a couple of pucks to find the back of the net on some good plays,” Shaw said. “Especially net front, because we’re continuing to work on net-front presence.”

Kenai River was outshot in the period 19-10 on the way to losing the shot count 49-34 for the game.

“They just weren’t the high quality that we should have,” Fairbanks head coach Ryan Theros said of the first-period shots. “Then we just didn’t start on time, as far as making sure we were taking care of our net front.”

After the first period, the contest became a special-teams game and Fairbanks took advantage with three power-play goals and a short-handed goal.

Cam VanSickle scored on the power play with 17:25 left in the second period to make it 2-1.

Starting at the 12:14 mark, the Brown Bears successfully killed off two minutes of a five-on-three. Kenai earned a two-on-none breakaway coming out of the box, but Menard, only 17, made the save.

“Your goalie is going to have to make all the saves they need to, then steal a few,” Shaw said. “He stole that one, right?”

The Bears still had a chance to retake the momentum when they earned a power play coming out of that two-on-none, but Robby House scored short-handed on that power play.

“We have stuff we work on every week, and we didn’t execute those details,” Shaw said. “That’s extremely frustrating for us.”

Before the period was out, Fairbanks led 4-2 on two goals from Ricciardi, one on the power play.

Burke added a power-play goal in the third period.

Fairbanks was 3 for 10 on the power play, while Kenai River was 1 for 6.

“Just mental toughness and discipline, right?” Theros said. “When they get undisciplined, we’re hopefully going to take advantage of it, and we did.”

Menard had 32 saves, while Owen Zenone stopped 44 for Kenai River.

“We were just chasing it the whole night, and I thought they played well,” Shaw said of the Ice Dogs. “They possessed the pucks, they got pucks to the net and they played hard.

“We didn’t win many battles all night. We didn’t win puck races. We were just kind of out there. We weren’t playing.”

Friday

Ice Dogs 5, Brown Bears 2

Fai 0 4 1 —5

Ken 2 0 0 —2

First period — 1. Kenai River, Engelkes (Rampton, Ross), 5:33. 2. Kenai River, Yoon (Rampton, Clarke), pp, 18:56. Penalties — Fairbanks 2 for 4:00; Kenai River 1 for 2:00.

Second period — 3. Fairbanks, VanSickle (Rohrer, Ricciardi), pp, 2:35. 4. Fairbanks, House (Leonard), sh, 11:24. 5. Fairbanks, Ricciardi (Corneillie, Timm), pp, 14:14. 6. Fairbanks, Ricciardi (Collins, Vorobev), 18:47. Penalties — Fairbanks 3 for 6:00; Kenai River 6 for 12:00.

Third period — 7. Fairbanks, Burke (Carlson, Corneillie), pp, 13:33. Penalties — Fairbanks 3 for 14:00; Kenai River 5 for 18:00.

Shots on goal — Fairbanks 19-18-12—49; Kenai River 12-11-11—34.

Goalies — Fairbanks, Menard (34 shots, 32 saves); Kenai River, Zenone (49 shots, 44 saves).

Power plays — Fairbanks 3 for 10; Kenai River 1 for 6.

Saturday

Ice Dogs 2, Brown Bears 1, SO

Fai 0 1 0 0 1—2

Ken 0 1 0 0 0 —1

First period — none. Penalties — Fairbanks 1 for 2:00.

Second period — 1. Kenai River, Engelkes (Lizak), 12:18. 2. Fairbanks, Burke (Corneillie, Ricciardi), pp, 17:54. Penalties — Fairbanks 3 for 6:00; Kenai River 3 for 6:00.

Third period — none. Penalties — Fairbanks 1 for 2:00; Kenai River 3 for 6:00.

Overtime — none. Penalties — Kenai River 1 for 2:00.

Shootout — Fairbanks 2 (Ricciardi G, Bergner NG, Norkevicus G); Kenai River 1 (Lass NG, Larson G, McCormick NG).

Shots on goal — Fairbanks 11-14-16-5—46; Kenai River 8-9-11-0—28.

Goalies — Fairbanks, Menard (28 shots, 27 saves); Kenai River, Mccusker (46 shots, 45 saves).