The Fairbanks Ice Dogs got off to a solid start under new head coach Dave Allison, defeating the Kenai River Brown Bears on Friday and Saturday in Fairbanks in North American Hockey League play.
After a 10-1 victory Friday and 5-3 victory Saturday, the Ice Dogs are in first place in the Midwest Division at 24-11-0-1, while the Brown Bears are in last at 7-23-3-2.
Fairbanks also leads the Club 49 Cup, the battle for supremacy between Alaska’s three NAHL clubs. Fairbanks has 18, the Anchorage Wolverines have 13 and the Bears have seven.
The Bears now host the Janesville (Wisconsin) Jets at the Soldotna Regional Sportts Complex on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The games Friday and Saturday are at 7:30 p.m., while the Sunday contest is at 5 p.m.
Saturday’s first period saw a pair of fights after the Bears had taken the lopsided defeat the night before. Fairbanks left the first leading 1-0 thanks to Cameron Ricotta.
Kenai River took a 2-1 lead in the second when Ryan Finch scored on assists from Kaden Hjelm and Carter Green, and Max Marquette scored on assists from Bryce Monrean and Cole Dubicki.
Camden Shasby and Billy Renfrew put Fairbanks up 3-2 headed to the third.
Tyler Stewart scored early in the third for a 4-2 game, but Hjelm, assisted by Dubicki and Monrean, cut it to 4-3 with 13:32 to play.
Jake Hale iced it for Fairbanks with an empty-netter with 59 seconds left.
Tyler Krivtsov had 31 saves for the Ice Dogs, while Cole Wheaton stopped 31 for the Bears.
Friday, Ryan Finch, assisted by Carter Green and Bryce Monrean, scored 5:19 into the first period to tie the game at 1, but after that it was all Ice Dogs.
Jake Hale, Cameron Ricotta, Tyler Stewart and Billy Renfrew had two goals, while Marcus Lund and Alexander Malinowski added tallies.
For the Bears, Cole Wheaton had four saves on seven shots, while Tommy Aitken had 15 saves on 22 shots. For Fairbanks, Kayden Hargraves had 30 saves.
Friday
Ice Dogs 10, Brown Bears 1
Kenai River 1 0 0 —1
Fairbanks 4 3 3 —10
First period — 1. Fairbanks, Stewart (MacIntosh, Cunningham), 2:16; 2. Kenai River, Finch (Green, Monrean), 5:19; 3. Fairbanks, Renfrew (Malinowski, Welsch), 7:09; 4. Fairbanks, Renfrew (Malinowski, Conrad), 16:23; 5. Fairbanks, Hale (Ring, Conrad), 18:23. Penalties — Kenai River 1 for 2:00.
Second period — 6. Fairbanks, Hale (Ricotta, Ring), 0:20; 7. Fairbanks, Lund (Griswold, Dvorak), 6:48; 8. Fairbanks, Ricotta (Ring, Conrad), 13:55. Penalties — Fairbanks 1 for 2:00.
Third period — 9. Fairbanks, Ricotta (Ring, Hale), 4:21; 10. Fairbanks, Malinowski (un.), sh, 8:01; 11. Fairbanks, Stewart (Conrad), 16:34. Penalties — Kenai River 2 for 4:00; Fairbanks 2 for 4:00.
Shots on goal — Kenai River 11-11-9—31; Fairbanks 9-13-7—29.
Goalies — Kenai River, Wheaton (7 shots, 4 saves); Aitken (22 shots, 15 saves); Fairbanks, Hargraves (31 shots, 30 saves).
Power plays — Kenai River 0 for 2; Fairbanks 1 for 2.
Saturday
Ice Dogs 5, Brown Bears 3
Kenai River 0 2 1 —3
Fairbanks 1 2 2 —5
First period — 1. Fairbanks, Ricotta (un.), sh, 15:29. Penalties — Kenai River 6 for 52:00; Fairbanks 8 for 56:00.
Second period — 2. Kenai River, Finch (Hjelm, Green), pp, 11:23; 3. Kenai River, Marquette (Monrean), 12:10; 4. Fairbanks, Shasby (Malinowski, Welsch), 13:00; 5. Fairbanks, Renfrew (Dorn), 17:14. Penalties — Fairbanks 1 for 2:00.
Third period — 6. Fairbanks, Stewart (MacIntosh, Ring), 3:25; 7. Kenai River, Henry (Dubicki, Hjelm), 6:28; 8. Fairbanks, Hale (un.), en, 19:01. Penalties — Kenai River 2 for 12:00.
Shots on goal — Kenai River 10-13-11—34; Fairbanks 9-17-10—36.
Goalies — Kenai River, Wheaton (35 shots, 31 saves); Fairbanks, Krivtsov (34 shots, 31 saves).
Power plays — Kenai River 1 for 4; Fairbanks 0 for 2.
