The visiting Kenai River Brown Bears completed a weekend sweep of the Springfield (Illinois) Jr. Blues on Saturday with a 5-4 victory in North American Hockey League play.
The Brown Bears have now won three straight following an eight-game losing streak.
In the last seven games of the losing streak, Kenai River failed to score at least three goals in each game. In the three-game winning streak, the Bears have scored three or more goals in regulation each game.
Saturday, Kenai River hit five goals for the first time since Sept. 27.
“Fortunately, we got a little puck luck on a couple of goals, but I thought the guys stuck to the plan for the most part,” Kenai River head coach Taylor Shaw said. “Our net front was a lot better. We were attacking inside the dots.”
Kenai River is in seventh place in the Midwest Division at 11-13-1-2. The Brown Bears also are just two points out of fourth place and the final playoff spot out of the Midwest. The Jr. Blues are in fifth place at 12-10-1-1.
The Bears remain on the road to face the Minnesota Wilderness on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 13 and 14, at 4:15 p.m. AKST. The Wilderness are in fourth place in the division at 12-13-3-0 for 27 points.
“There’s no easy night in this division,” Shaw said. “I don’t care who it is, you have to bring your best game every night.
“I think it’s setting up to be, obviously, a big weekend for us this weekend. We’re just going to try and stay focused on the details and our plan.”
Greye Rampton, assisted by Carter McCormick, lit the lamp on the power play as the Bears left the first period up 1-0.
Owen Lowe tied it for Springfield with 12:16 left in the second period, but Kenai River then scored four unanswered goals to take control of the game.
Three of those goals came in 1:08, starting with Luke Hause scoring unassisted with 9:39 left in the second period.
Goals by Dario Lass, assisted by Rampton, and Jack Clarke, assisted by McCormick, quickly followed. McCormick then scored on the power play, assisted by Clarke and Thomas Gunderson.
The Brown Bears scored twice on the power play after going scoreless with the extra man in the last four games.
“To be honest, I like the last two weekends,” Shaw said of the power play. “I like the looks and chances we were getting.”
Kenai River finished 2 for 7 on the power play, but Shaw said on the final three power plays of the game, the Bears just put normal lineups out to guard against odd-man rushes.
“They know it’s important,” Shaw said of the team and the power play. “I think they kind of feel like they’ve had a little bit of weight lifted off their shoulders when they were able to get a couple.”
Gaige Giblin then cut it to 5-2 headed to the third period.
With 10:54 left in the game, Jack Klevby scored unassisted for Springfield. Jagur McClelland then made things interesting by scoring with 1:31 left.
“You’d have liked to see us close that game the way it was, and we certainly are capable of doing that,” Shaw said. “But I think it was good for our group to try to figure out how to do it again.
“It’s not that you forget, but there’s different emotions that go through it, right?”
Mitchell Mccusker was able to hang on for the win, making 18 saves. Matt Schoephoerster had 10 saves on 14 shots for the Jr. Blues, while Frank Murphy stopped 16 pucks on 17 chances.
Saturday
Brown Bears 5, Jr. Blues 4
Ken 1 4 0 —5
Spr 0 2 2 —4
First period — 1. Kenai River, Rampton (McCormick), pp, 13:18. Penalties — Kenai River 2 for 4:00; Springfield 1 for 2:00.
Second period — 2. Springfield, Lowe (Winklebleck), 7:44; 3. Kenai River, Hause (un.), 10:21; 4. Kenai River, Lass (Rampton), 11:16; 5. Kenai River, Clarke (McCormick), 11:29. 6. Kenai River, McCormick (Clarke, Gunderson), pp, 17:30; 7. Springfield, Giblin (Klevby, Smith), 18:58. Penalties — Kenai River 1 for 2:00; Springfield 2 for 4:00.
Third period — 8. Springfield, Klevby (un.), 9:06. 9. Springfield, McClelland (Giblin, Ganz), 18:29. Penalties — Kenai River 1 for 2:00; Springfield 4 for 8:00.
Shots on goal — Kenai River 8-15-8—31; Springfield 11-4-7—22.
Goalies — Kenai River, Mccusker (22 shots, 18 saves); Springfield, Schoephoerster (14 shots, 10 saves), Murphy (17 shots, 16 saves).
