The Kenai River Brown Bears and Fairbanks Ice Dogs split a pair of North American Hockey League games Friday and Saturday at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex.
The Bears won 5-2 on Friday behind a pair of Hunter Newhouse goals before the Ice Dogs notched a 4-1 victory Saturday.
The Bears are 2-8-0-0 against the Ice Dogs this season. The Ice Dogs move into the lead in the Club 49 Cup, the battle between Alaska’s three NAHL clubs. The Ice Dogs have 25 points, while the Anchorage Wolverines have 24 points and the Bears have 11.
Fairbanks stays in first place in the Midwest Division at 32-17-1-2, while the Bears remain in last place at 13-33-3-2.
The Bears now host the Minnesota Wilderness at 7 p.m. Thursday, then at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
“Our group is pretty resilient,” Kenai River interim head coach Taylor Shaw said Friday. “We’ve got a lot of new faces and we still found a way to win against what, quite frankly, is the best team in the league right now.”
Newhouse had the lone goal of the first period, assisted by Huffman.
“I think we actually started a little slow,” Shaw said. “Give Fairbanks respect for the first five minutes. Then we were able to settle down and get a couple of power plays. We didn’t score off them, but we had some good looks and that gave us a lot of momentum.”
Newhouse then opened the scoring in the second period, scoring on the power play with help from Nick Stevens and Bryce Monrean.
“I thought our power play, even before we scored, was getting good looks,” Shaw said. “We made a couple tweaks and had some chances and could have opened up the game, but their goalie made some good kicks.”
Fairbanks then scored two goals within a minute of each other to knot the game with 6:39 left in the second period. Alexander Malinowski and Cameron Ricotta had the tallies.
With 4:37 left in the second period, Carter Cloutier gave the Bears the lead for good on assists from Parker Lockwood of Kenai and Huffman.
Kenai River was able to use its speed to create turnovers against the Fairbanks defensemen and keep the Ice Dogs from a lot of good looks.
“We talk about it all the time — our biggest attribute is our speed and we play best when we consistently use it,” Shaw said. “We may not be the most skilled team, but our boys worked tonight.”
The Bears held that one-goal lead for the entire third period until empty-net goals from Monrean, assisted by Noah Holt and Newhouse, and Caden Triggs, assisted by Sean Henry and Stevens.
Shaw said Kenai River was able to hold the lead in the third period despite losing defenseman Colin Doherty to a season-ending injury in the first period. The Bears had to play with five defensemen the rest of the night.
“It’s unfortunate to lose a kid like that,” Shaw said. “He’s an awesome kid. We rallied to get a win for him, as well.”
Bryant Marks made 35 saves for the Bears, while Kayden Hargraves stopped 22 for the Ice Dogs. Marks is only 18, but Shaw said Marks continues to show how much he has improved this season.
“He’s bought into the process and that’s what it’s all about,” Shaw said. “That’s the culture we’re trying to make.”
Saturday, the Ice Dogs won the special teams battle and won the game. Fairbanks was 3 for 5 on the power play, while the Bears were 0 for 4.
Monrean, assisted by Newhouse, had the Bears up 1-0 after the first period.
Fairbanks would scored the last four goals of the game. Malinowski, Jack Ring and Billy Renfrew scored in the second period, while Renfrew added a goal in the third period.
Friday
Brown Bears 5, Ice Dogs 2
Fairbanks 0 2 0 —2
Kenai River 1 2 2 —5
First period — 1. Kenai River, Newhouse (Huffman), 11:14. Penalties — Fairbanks 2 for 7:00; Kenai River 2 for 4:00.
Second period — 2. Kenai River, Newhouse (Stevens, Monrean), pp, 7:54; 3. Fairbanks, Malinowski (Renfrew), 12:12; 4. Fairbanks, Ricotta (Malinowski, Renfrew), 13:21; 5. Kenai River, Cloutier (Lockwood, Huffman), 15:23. Penalties — Fairbanks 3 for 6:00; Kenai River 2 for 4:00.
Third period — 6. Kenai River, Monrean (Holt, Newhouse), en, 18:10; 7. Kenai River, Triggs (Henry, Stevens), en, 18:51.
Shots on goal — Fairbanks 14-14-9—37; Kenai River 6-12-9—27.
Goalies — Fairbanks, Hargraves (25 shots, 22 saves); Kenai River, Marks (37 shots, 35 saves).
Kenai River Brown Bears goalie Bryant Marks saves a shot by Jack Ring of the Fairbanks Ice Dogs on Friday at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex in Soldotna.
