The Fairbanks Ice Dogs swept a Friday and Saturday series from the Kenai River Brown Bears at the Big Dipper Ice Arena in Fairbanks.

The Ice Dogs won 6-3 on Friday and 6-2 on Saturday to wrap up home-ice advantage and the second seed in a first-round playoff matchup with the No. 3 Anchorage Wolverines.

Fairbanks also wins the Club 49 Cup with 33 points, while the Wolverines have 27 and the Brown Bears have 18.

Kenai River ended its 18th season in the NAHL in seventh place in the Midwest Division. The Bears lost their last seven games to finish 21-30-4-4.

“It’s tough when your season’s done and you’re not advancing,” Kenai River head coach Taylor Shaw said. “It’s tough on the 20-year-olds, obviously.

“I’d like to go out with a win singing ‘Country Roads’ one more time, but it wasn’t in the cards tonight.”

Shaw said the season still had some good memories.

“The thing I’ll remember with this group is we had that tough skid in December when we got to Alaska and lost a couple of our players there in December,” Shaw said.

The Bears then picked up points in 11 of their next 12 games to get back in the playoff chase.

“And we did that, but we didn’t see it through,” Shaw said. “But about six weeks ago, we were in a spot, and the group climbed out of a hole.”

Fairbanks finished 37-16-3-3 to take second, while Anchorage was 36-17-2-4 to take third. The Chippewa (Wisconsin) Steel got the fourth playoff spot and will play the division champion Wisconsin Windigo in the first round.

The Ice Dogs wasted little time in getting on the right track to clinching home ice.

Fairbanks had a 3-0 lead after the first period on goals by Thomas Corneillie, Cam VanSickle and Ian Norkevicus. Norkevicus scored on the power play. The Ice Dogs were 2 for 3 with the man advantage, while the Bears didn’t get a power play.

After Adam Timm put Fairbanks up 4-0 in the second period, William Esterbrooks, assisted by Andy Larson and Luke Hause, got the Bears on the board.

Esterbooks had goals in his final three games to get his total to eight scores in 51 games this season.

“I thought we adjusted pretty good in the second period,” Shaw said. “I think we had almost 20 shots in the second period, we just couldn’t find a way to get another one.

“Then we had to try and kill off two penalties in the third period and just couldn’t get any momentum going.”

Brady Engelkes, assisted by Thomas Gunderson and Joseph Yoon, cut it to 4-2 early in the third period.

Fairbanks closed on a goal by Rylan Oster and a power-play strike by Jackson Fox.

Owen Zenone had 32 saves for the Bears, while Charlie Menard stopped 28 for the Ice Dogs.

Friday, the Bears lost due to special teams, with Fairbanks finishing 4 for 6 on the power play and Kenai River going 0 for 4.

“The bottom line is special teams lost us a hockey game,” Shaw said. “Our penalties were not even good penalties.

“So it was lack of execution. That’s a tough pill, not getting necessarily beat by great plays, but lack of execution.”

The Ice Dogs led 2-0 after the first period on power-play goals by Kyle Rohrer and Norkevicus.

After Luc Plante put the Ice Dogs up 3-0, Michael Fiedorczuk, assisted by Larson and Andrew Politoski, got the Bears on the board with 13:41 left in the second period.

Fiedorczuk scored for the third time in his past two games. He had eight goals on the season.

“He’s finding ways to capitalize, so it’s awesome,” Shaw said.

After a power-play goal by VanSickle, Esterbooks made it 4-2 headed to the third period on assists from Engelkes and Luke Lizak.

Fairbanks went up 5-2 in the third period on a power-play strike from Plante, then Rohrer made it 6-2 less than a minute later with 11:01 left in the game.

Engelkes scored late for Kenai River, assisted by Riley Mullen and Carter McCormick.

Mason McElroy made 31 saves for the Ice Dogs, while Mitchell Mccusker stopped 26 for the Bears.

Larson, Hause, Lizak and Zenone age out for the Bears.

“There are 20 players on paper that could return next year,” Shaw said. “That’s a lot, potentially.”

Friday

Ice Dogs 6, Brown Bears 3

Ken 0 2 1 —3

Fai 2 2 2 —6

First period — 1. Fairbanks, Rohrer (Coyle, Carlson), pp, 6:33; 2. Fairbanks, Norkevicus (Leonard, Timm), pp, 19:24. Penalties — Kenai River 2 for 4:00; Fairbanks 1 for 2:00.

Second period — 3. Fairbanks, Plante (VanSickle, Coyle), 1:44. 4. Kenai River, Fiedorczuk (Larson, Politoski), 6:19. 5. Fairbanks, VanSickle (Carlson, Rohrer), pp, 11:00. 6. Kenai River, Esterbrooks (Engelkes, Lizak), 19:23. Penalties — Kenai River 1 for 2:00; Fairbanks 3 for 6:00.

Third period — 7. Fairbanks, Plante (Timm, Norkevicus), pp, 8:31; 8. Fairbanks, Rohrer (Gulenchyn, Fox), 8:59. 9. Kenai River, Engelkes (Mullen, McCormick), 14:39. Penalties — Kenai River 4 for 16:00.

Shots on goal — Kenai River 15-13-6—34; Fairbanks 13-11-8—32.

Goalies — Kenai River, Mccusker (32 shots, 26 saves); Fairbanks, McElroy (34 shots, 31 saves).

Power plays — Kenai River 0 for 4; Fairbanks 4 for 6.

Saturday

Ice Dogs 6, Brown Bears 2

Ken 0 1 1 —2

Fai 3 1 2 —6

First period — 1. Fairbanks, Corneillie (Coyle, Leonard), 2:42. 2. Fairbanks, VanSickle (Timm, Corneillie), 7:16. 3. Fairbanks, Norkevicus (Plante, Timm), pp, 10:04. Penalties — Kenai River 1 for 2:00.

Second period — 4. Fairbanks, Timm (Plante, Noble), 5:45. 5. Kenai River, Esterbrooks (Larson, Hause), 7:07. Penalties — Kenai River 2 for 15:00; Fairbanks 2 for 15:00.

Third period — 6. Kenai River, Engelkes (Gunderson, Yoon), 1:23. 7. Fairbanks, Oster (Vorobev, Bergner), 6:00. 8. Fairbanks, Fox (Oster, Leonard), pp, 18:27. Penalties — Kenai River 2 for 4:00.

Shots on goal — Kenai River 8-17-5—30; Fairbanks 15-11-12—38.

Goalies — Kenai River, Zenone (38 shots, 32 saves); Fairbanks, Menard (30 shots, 28 saves).

Power plays — Kenai River 0 for 0; Fairbanks 2 for 3.