Wilderness hand Brown Bears their 5th straight loss

The Minnesota Wilderness defeated the Kenai River Brown Bears 3-1 on Friday in North American Hockey League play at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex.

The Wilderness improve to 6-3-2-0 and move into a tie for first place in the Midwest Division with 14 points with the Chippewa (Wisconsin) Steel and Janesville (Wisconsin) Jets.

The Wisconsin Windigo have 13 points, the Anchorage Wolverines have 12 points and the Bears (5-6-1-0) and Fairbanks Ice Dogs each have 11 points.

The Wilderness have won five straight after starting the season with four losses in five games.

“I gotta give our guys credit, they’re just becoming more of a family and a closer team,” Wilderness head coach Colten St. Clair said. “When we play one-on-one hockey, we just don’t do well.

“Some teams have the ability to play a little bit more one-on-one and we don’t. When we’re successful, we stick together and stay connected as five on the ice.”

The Bears are headed in the opposite direction. They won five of their first seven, but now have lost five straight. Kenai River had 28 goals in its first seven games, but has had eight goals in its last five games.

Kenai River hosts the Windigo at the sports complex on Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

“We’re not scoring goals,” Kenai River head coach Taylor Shaw said. “That’s a big issue. When you score one goal, you’re not going to win many hockey games, right?”

The Bears came out strong in the first period, outshooting the Wilderness 10-3.

“They looked like a team that was hungry to play at home,” St. Clair said. “They definitely took advantage of it and we tip our hat to them.

“They dominated us in the first period.”

With 1:14 left in the first period, Marko Giourof tipped in a shot from Joe Manning to give the Bears a 1-0 lead. Joel Hanson also assisted on the play.

Between periods, St. Clair told his team to get back of their identity by working hard and not playing one-on-one hockey.

Oliver Stumpel, assisted by Joe Cesario, scored just 1:46 into the second period to tie it. In November 2022, Stumpel was motionless on the sports complex ice for about 15 minutes before being removed on a stretcher. He recovered and played later in the season.

Shaw said he was happy with the first period. In the second period, Stumpel’s goal sparked a 10-4 advantage on shots.

“They really tilted the ice in the second period,” Shaw said. “It doesn’t help when you give up a goal right away at the start of the period.

“And we never got our juice back.”

At the start of the third period, the Wilderness kept getting sustained time in the offensive zone and traffic to the net. Daniel Harkimo, assisted by Ashton Dahms and Harper Searles, put the Wilderness up 2-1 with 14:30 to play.

The goal lit a fire under the Bears, and teams started creating chances at both ends.

“I gotta give them credit, they had a good push,” St. Clair said of the Bears. “I’ll give our guys credit, they stuck with it and stayed with the plan.”

Minnesota goalie Adam Prokop, who had 24 saves, and Kenai River goalie Conor Sullivan, who had 21 saves, were up to the task of stopping the third-period chances until Stumpel, assisted by Daniel Astopovich and Beau Janzig, scored with 2:21 left.

“I thought we pushed a little bit at the end of the third, but it was too late,” Shaw said.

Prokop, acquired in a trade before the Alaska trip due to an injury to another goalie, won his first start for Minnesota.

“Adam played a great game,” St. Clair said. “He just does things right. He’s been with us for just a short period of time, but he’s a great human being, and obviously a good goaltender.”

The Bears now face the Windigo, who got Kenai River started on this skid with 9-2 and 10-3 games on Sept. 29 and 30 in Wisconsin.

Shaw said the goalies struggled that weekend, but since then the problem has been fixed.

“The score was more lopsided than the game itself,” he said. “The boys will be ready to go for next weekend.”

Friday

Wilderness 3, Brown Bears 1

Minnesota 0 1 2 —3

Kenai River 1 0 0 —1

First period — 1. Kenai River, Giourof (Manning, J. Hanson), 18:46. Penalties — Minnesota 1 for 2:00.

Second period — 2. Minnesota, Stumpel (Cesario), 1:47. Penalties — Minnesota 1 for 2:00; Kenai River 1 for 2:00.

Third period — 3. Minnesota, Harkimo (Dahms, Searles), 5:31; 4. Minnesota, Stumpel (Astopovich, Janzig), 17:40. Penalties — Minnesota 1 for 2:00.

Shots on goal — Minnesota 3-10-11—24; Kenai River 10-4-11—25.

Goalies — Minnesota, Prokop (25 shots, 24 saves); Kenai River, Sullivan (24 shots, 21 saves).

Power plays — Minnesota 0 for 1; Kenai River 0 for 3.