Saturday: Brown Bears top Mountain Kings, win 2 of 3 at Showcase

Published 9:01 pm Saturday, September 27, 2025

The Kenai River Brown Bears finished up play at the North American Hockey League Showcase by defeating the New Hampshire Mountain Kings 4-3 on Saturday in Blaine, Minnesota.

The Brown Bears scored four straight goals in the middle of the game to improve to 4-3-0-0 and drop the Mountain Kings to 4-3-0-0.

Kenai River now returns to Alaska for home-opening weekend Friday and Saturday, Oct. 3 and 4. The Bears take on the Minnesota Wilderness at 7:30 p.m. both nights.

New Hampshire opened up the game’s scoring in the second period with a power-play goal with 16:28 to play.

Kenai River then scored a cluster of goals late in the second period and early in the third period to take control of the game.

With 2:58 left in the second period, Massimiliano Monson scored on an assist from Michael Fiedorczuk. Just 28 seconds later, Samuel Sisik scored with help from Evin Anderson and Kristians Utnans. Then with 45 seconds left in the second, Anthony McIntosh scored unassisted.

With 17:58 left in the game, Kenai River went up 4-1 when Sisik scored again, again with help from Utnans and Anderson.

The Bears then survived power-play goals from Thomas Quast and Benjamin Tauscher.

Connor MacKenzie had 26 saves for the Bears. For the Mountain Kings, Gavin Weeks had 19 saves on 22 shots and William Lubimov had five saves on six shots.

Saturday

Brown Bears 4, Mountain Kings 3

Ken 0 3 1 —4

NH 0 1 2 —3

First period — no scoring. Penalties — Kenai River 1 for 2:00; New Hampshire 3 for 6:00.

Second period — 1. New Hampshire, Gelhar (Quast, Brennan), pp, 16:28; 2. Kenai River, Monson (Fiedorczuk), 17:02; 3. Kenai River, Sisik (Anderson, Utnans), 2:30; 4. Kenai River, McIntosh (un.), 19:15. Penalties — Kenai River 3 for 6:00; New Hampshire 2 for 4:00.

Third period — 1. Kenai River, Sisik (Utnans, Anderson), 2:02; 2. New Hampshire, Quast (Cherepanov, Duhon), pp, 7:55; 3. New Hampshire, Tauscher (Gelhar, Cacciarelli), pp, 17:58.

Shots on goal — Kenai River 11-11-6—28; New Hampshire 9-7-13—29.

Goalies — Kenai River, MacKenzie (29 shots, 26 saves); New Hampshire, Weeks (22 shots, 19 saves), Lubimov (6 shots, 5 saves).

Power plays — Kenai River 0 for 6; 3 for 7.