Down 1-0 in the final 10 minutes on Friday to the most successful North American Hockey League team in the playoffs the past three years, a Brown Bears victory was going to take something special — with maybe a fortunate bounce tossed in.

Goalie Marcus Zelzer and forward Brad Duwe provided the special, while Vince Stefan took advantage of a nice bounce, as the Bears topped the Fairbanks Ice Dogs 2-1 in front of 1,182 fans at the Soldotna Sports Center.

After clinching his eighth and final Class 3A state basketball crown with Nikiski in 2006, firmly putting him up there with the best basketball coaches in the history of the state, Ward Romans credited not jumpers, not game film, but faith.

“This year came down to the same thing it does every year. The final ingredient was faith,” Romans said.

The Kenai River Brown Bears will look to use that crucial ingredient in the North American Hockey League West Division playoff series that continues today and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at the Soldotna Sports Center.

In 2006, Oliver David was an assistant coach on a California Wave Under-16 Tier I AAA team that advanced through regionals at the Big Dipper Ice Arena in Fairbanks before winning a national championship in Rochester, NY.

The Dipper, which is actually a converted aircraft hangar, has not been nearly as kind to David since he took over the Kenai River Brown Bears early in the 2009 season after Marty Quarters was fired after a 2-9-1 start.

The Bears have trended upward since David became the franchise’s fourth coach right at the beginning of its third year of existence.

There aren’t many places like Alaska, but three Soldotna High School football players recently signed letters of intent to play somewhere that is pretty close.

Noah Fowler, Zane Miller and Auston Tennis will play at The University of Montana Western, an NAIA school in Dillon, Mont.

According to the university’s website, Yellowstone, Glacier and Teton national parks are close to the university, as are premier hiking, biking, climbing, fishing and skiiing opportunities.

“They’re going to be spoiled down there,” Soldotna football coach Galen Brantley Jr. said.