Friday: Wolverines shut out Brown Bears

The Anchorage Wolverines defeated the Kenai River Brown Bears 4-0 Friday in North American Hockey League play at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex.

The Wolverines improved to 30-14-2-3, good for 65 points and third place in the Midwest Division. That’s just one point behind the second-place Fairbanks Ice Dogs in the race for home ice in the first round of the playoffs.

The Brown Bears are in seventh place at 20-24-4-3, good for 47 points. The Chippewa (Wisconsin) Steel hold the fourth playoff spot with 56 points.

“It makes it exciting, right?” Anchorage head coach Nick Walters said. “Every game, every night, is meaningful.

“Kenai is playing for something. We’re playing for something. Fairbanks is playing for something. It’s kind of cool to have all three Alaska teams in the mix this year.”

The same two teams relocate to Anchorage to play at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Sullivan Arena.

Both Walters and Kenai River head coach Taylor Shaw agreed the turning point in the game was when Anchorage’s Landon Greenough scored for a 1-0 lead on a four-on-four with 2:14 left in the first period.

“I liked our start,” Shaw said. “I thought we were pressing them pretty good, and the goalie was making some saves.

“We had looks, but we didn’t get them to fall.”

Walters said his squad got off to a sleepy start and was not managing the puck well.

“Then we got the first one and it just kind of settled the guys in,” he said. “I thought our puck possession got a lot better.

“I thought our players were playing more north instead of turning back into our own zone. I thought we just kind of got to the way we want to play.”

With 24 seconds left in the first period, Merit Waldrop buried breakaway as the Bears were coming off a power play.

“And then we’re chasing the game a bit more,” Shaw said. “I didn’t think we managed the puck.

“For the second period, I thought they were outworking us. They got on to possession and we weren’t killing plays fast enough.”

The Wolverines got a three-goal cushion with 1:57 left in the second period, when Samuel Evert scored right off a faceoff.

Andrew Karkoc finished the scoring in the third period for the Wolverines.

While Kenai River ripped a lot of its good scoring chances wide, Walters said the 27-save shutout of William Lubimov still had some impressive stretches. Owen Zenone stopped 28 for Kenai River.

The Anchorage head coach said if Lubimov did not allow the Wolverines to settle in by making early saves, it would have been a different game.

“I thought probably the first 10, 12 minutes of the game, they had the better of the scoring chances,” he said. “I thought they were getting the middle of the ice a little bit better than we were.

“That’s what you need from your goaltenders, right? When your team in front of you is missing key assignments, you need that guy that makes key saves.”

Walters said his team was banged up Friday, and Waldrop, of Anchorage, and Daniel Matveev, of Wasilla, stepped up as affiliates.

While Waldrop has been with the team all year, Matveev made his NAHL debut as the sports complex continues to play a big role in his career.

In 2024, he won the Division II state hockey title there with Houston. This February, Matveev played his last game with the Hawks at state at the sports complex.

Walters said Matveev is still a work in progress, but impressed with a few hits in the first period.

“I thought that kind of got the bench going a little bit, right?” the coach said. “He’s a new kid. He’s only been practicing a couple days and when the guys see that physicality, or a guy finishing hits like that, everybody kind of got up on the bench.

“I thought it got the guys going. He’s a more physical kid than he looks.”

With a bus to catch to Anchorage on Saturday afternoon, Shaw said the Bears must flush the loss quickly.

“It’s get back to work,” he said. “We’ve got business to take care of tomorrow. That’s all that matters.

“We can’t hang our head about it, right?”

Friday

Wolverines 4, Brown Bears 0

Anc 2 1 1 —4

Ken 0 0 0 —0

First period — 1. Anchorage, Greenough (Karkoc), 17:46. 2. Anchorage, Waldrop (Stimple, Breyer), 19:36. Penalties — Anchorage 2 for 4:00; Kenai River 2 for 4:00.

Second period — 3. Anchorage, Evert (un.), 18:03. Penalties — Anchorage 1 for 2:00.

Third period — 4. Anchorage, Karkoc (Devlin, Bednarik), 4:49.

Shots on goal — Anchorage 12-12-8—32; Kenai river 10-8-9—27.

Goalies — Anchorage, Lubimov (27 shots, 27 saves); Kenai River, Zenone (32 shots, 28 saves).

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