The Kenai River Brown Bears fell 7-2 on the road to the Fairbanks Ice Dogs on Thursday in North American Hockey League play.
The Bears fell to 3-1 in the battle for the Ravn Cup, the yearlong battle for supremacy between the state’s only two junior hockey teams.
The Ice Dogs stretched their lead in the Midwest Division over the second-place Brown Bears to 12 points. Fairbanks is now 31-9-1-2, while the Brown Bears are 24-14-2-3.
The same two teams play Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in Fairbanks.
Fairbanks took control from the outset, scoring the first five goals of the game. The strikes came from Lucas Erickson, Matt Koethe, Andrew Garby, Barak Braslavski and Mason Plante.
Jack Quinn, assisted by Connor Scahill and Anchorage’s Skylar Gutierrez, got the Bears on the board with 11:48 left in the second period. Oliver Kjaer would make it 6-1 Fairbanks by the end of the second period.
Anchorage’s Max Helgeson, assisted by Logan Ritchie and Soldotna’s Preston Weeks, scored for the Bears in the third. Parker Brown had a goal for Fairbanks.
Mattias Sholl stopped 25 for Fairbanks, while Landon Pavlisin stopped 19 of 22 and Danny Fraga saved 11 of 15 for Kenai River.
Friday
Ice Dogs 7, Brown Bears 2
Kenai River 0 1 1 —2
Fairbanks 4 2 1 —7
First period — 1. Fairbanks, Erickson (Ciolli, Koethe), 0:36; 2. Fairbanks, Koethe (Johnston, Ciolli), 9:51; 3. Fairbanks, Garby (Plante, Deweese), 10:58; 4. Fairbanks, Braslavski (Link), 17:45. Penalties — Fairbanks 2 for 4:00.
Second period — 5. Fairbanks, Plante (Deweese, Junker), 6:31; 6. Fairbanks, Quinn (Scahill, Gutierrez), 8:12; 7. Fairbanks, Kjaer (Eisele), pp, 16:59. Penalties — Kenai River 2 for 4:00.
Third period — 8. Kenai River, Helgeson (Ritchie, Weeks), 12:02; 9. Fairbanks, Brown (Kjaer, Junker), 16:13. Penalties — Kenai River 5 for 21:00; Fairbanks 4 for 19:00.
Shots on goal — Kenai River 8-6-13—27; Fairbanks 15-13-9—37.
Goalies — Kenai River, Pavlisin (22 shots, 19 saves), Fraga (15 shots, 11 saves); Fairbanks, Sholl (27 shots, 25 saves).
Power plays — Kenai River 0 for 2, Fairbanks 1 for 3.
