Kenai River Brown Bears goaltender Gavin Enright was named the Midwest Division Star of the Week on Monday by the North American Hockey League.
Enright stopped 48 of 50 shots as the Bears took two games from the Chippewa (Wisconsin) Steel on Friday and Saturday at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex. The sweep kept the Bears atop the Midwest Division and also gave them a second Star of the Week just 10 games into the season.
Kenai River head coach Josh Petrich said Enright, who is 6-foot-2, 160 pounds and from Farmington, Minnesota, made consistent improvements throughout last season. Then he took it to another level in the offseason.
“This offseason, he made a very conscious effort to work on vision and tracking of pucks,” Petrich said. “You can definitely see an improvement in that so far this year.
“Athletically he is a gifted goalie. His lateral movement is off the charts. He just had to work on tracking pucks and his vision in traffic.”
After Friday’s game, Enright gave a lot of credit to his team and Petrich echoed that.
“I think we’ve made a vast improvement in the quality of shots our goaltenders face,” Petrich said. “We’re blocking a lot of shots and keeping pucks to the outside.”
