Wolverines take season finale from Brown Bears

The Anchorage Wolverines defeated the Kenai River Brown Bears 5-3 on Saturday at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex in the North American Hockey League regular season finale for both teams.

Before the game, the Minnesota Wilderness defeated the Chippewa (Wisconsin) Steel 6-3 to lock the Brown Bears (32-24-3-1) into the No. 3 playoff seed out of the Midwest Division.

The Wisconsin Windigo are the top seed, while the Wilderness are second and the Steel are fourth.

Kenai River head coach Taylor Shaw said his team leaves Tuesday for Cloquet, Minnesota, to get ready for the best-of-five series against the Wilderness. The first two games of the series are Friday and Saturday in Minnesota, both at 4:15 p.m. Alaska time.

With Anchorage (28-24-6-2) already out of the playoffs, Saturday’s game had no bearing on the postseason.

With an official attendance of 2,997, though, Shaw said it’s impossible to stay the game didn’t mean much.

“The passion can’t change, and the way we’re playing can’t change, just because it doesn’t mean anything,” Shaw said. “Every game matters.

“If you look around the rink, I think that tells you what you need to know about what matters. It was pretty neat for all them to be in here.”

Last year, in their first season in the league, the Wolverines went all the way to the finals of the Robertson Cup before losing. Anchorage also won the Club 49 Cup with 33 points, while the Fairbanks Ice Dogs had 26 and the Bears had 25.

So it was clear the Wolverines would not lie down Saturday.

“You always want to win the last game of the year,” Anchorage head coach Evan Trupp said. “Ideally, it’s in the playoffs.

“It’s bittersweet. A nice way to end the season.”

The Wolverines jumped out to a 2-0 lead in just over nine minutes on goals by Aiden Westin and Cooper Morris, then were able to answer any pushes the Brown Bears made.

“The last couple of games, we’ve been chasing it a bit,” Trupp said. “So, it’s nice to get off to a good start and have the upper edge there.”

Kenai River’s first push came with 3:28 left in the second period, when Kenai’s Parker Lockwood scored short-handed for his third goal of the year to electrify the crowd. Lockwood cut back and beat an Anchorage defender before scoring. Nick Stevens and Luke Hause had assists.

Shaw has talked about how selfless Lockwood has been in taking on the role of a top penalty killer this season.

“It’s funny how a guy buys into a role and reaps a reward like that,” Shaw said.

Less than two minutes later, though, Mason LeBel quieted the crowd in putting Anchorage up 3-1.

Or, at least most of the crowd.

“Kenai has done a great job this year with their fan base, and it was cool to see a lot of Anchorage fans come up as well,” Trupp said. “These rivalry games are a lot of fun.

“There’s that little extra on the line that I think the guys get up for.”

The Bears finished 5-7-0-0 against Anchorage this season.

With 55 seconds left in the second period, Nick Stevens cut it to 3-2 for Kenai River by driving hard to the net. Jacob Zwirecki and Bryant Marks were credited with assists.

Again, LeBel answered back with a strike with 11:20 left in the game on the power play.

Shaw was not happy with the way his team killed penalties this weekend. Anchorage was 2 for 3 on the power play Friday and 1 for 4 Saturday.

“We do have a few guys out tonight that would normally kill for us,” Shaw said. “At the end of the day, everybody’s got to do it.”

Kenai River made one last push when Carson Triggs scored on the power play on assists from Ryan Finch and Ben Monson with 7:33 left.

Anchorage again answered quickly, with Tyler Hennen scoring with 5:04 left.

“I didn’t think we managed the puck very well tonight,” Shaw said. “We had a lot of turnovers trying to get pucks out.”

Eino Rissanen saved 39 for Anchorage, while Marks stopped 23 for the Bears.

Shaw also was happy to get affiliate players Carter Gillen, Carter McCormick and Dantae Hunziker in front of the home crowd for the first time. All the players have tendered with the Bears for next season.

“They’re really liked in our locker room — great kids and great families,” Shaw said. “We’re super happy to give them the opportunity.

“Our guys that sat out to give them that, they couldn’t be more happy for them.”

Editor’s note: This story corrects the number of goals Parker Lockwood has scored this season from a previous online version.

Saturday

Wolverines 5, Brown Bears 3

Anchorage 2 1 2 —5

Kenai River 0 2 1 —3

First period — 1. Anchorage, Westin (Ca. Morris, Ramsey), 5:58; 2. Anchorage, Co. Morris (Allen, DiPonio), 9:09. Penalties — Anchorage 2 for 4:00; Kenai River 1 for 2:00.

Second period — 3. Kenai River, Lockwood (Stevens, Hause), sh, 16:22; 4. Anchorage, LeBel (DiPonio, Allen), 18:04; 5. Kenai River, Stevens (Zwirecki, Marks), 19:05. Penalties — Anchorage 3 for 6:00; Kenai River 4 for 8:00.

Third period — 6. Anchorage, LeBel (Westin, Ca. Morris), 8:40; 7. Kenai River, Triggs (Finch, Monson), pp, 12:27; 8. Anchorage, Hennen (Reis, Shea), 14:56. Penalties — Anchorage 1 for 2:00; Kenai River 1 for 2:00.

Shots on goal — Anchorage 13-7-8—28; Kenai River 17-16-9—42.

Goalies — Anchorage, Rissanen (42 shots, 39 saves); Kenai River, Wallstrom (28 shots, 23 saves).

Power plays — Anchorage 1 for 4; Kenai River 1 for 4.