After a strong start followed by a midseason swoon, the Kenai River Brown Bears are streaking again and controlling their playoff destiny in the North American Hockey League.
Meanwhile, the Anchorage Wolverines are just sort of muddling along, and currently out of postseason position, with time running out in the 60-game regular season, although they did win two of three home games over the weekend.
The Fairbanks Ice Dogs are in free-fall, out of playoff position and in danger of going splat. Compounding their misery: They have just four regular season games left, plus they will be idle on the regular season’s final weekend in mid-April. So, their margin for error is thinner than a skate blade – oof.
Here’s how the Midwest Division looks after the weekend (top 4 finishers make playoffs, everyone else gets sad):
1) Wisconsin Windigo, 71 points, playoff spot clinched, 6 games left
2) Minnesota Wilderness, 69 points, 6 games left
3) Kenai River Brown Bears, 61 points, 6 games left
4) Chippewa Steel, 60 points, 7 games left
5) Fairbanks Ice Dogs, 59 points, 4 games left
6) Anchorage Wolverines 57 points, 7 games left
7) Janesville Jets, 53 points, 4 games left
8) Springfield Jr. Blues, 50 points, 6 games left
Kenai River ran its winning streak to four games with Friday’s 4-3 win over the visiting Ice Dogs and Saturday’s 3-2 shootout win over Fairbanks, and the Brown Bears are 8-2-0 in their last 10 games. Bryce Monrean of Anchorage, a UAF commit, furnished an assist in both games. He owns a three-game point streak (1-4—5) and 3-10—13 totals in the last 10 games.
The Brown Bears’ season has been hot-cold-hot. Breaking their 54 games so far into 18-game segments, they’ve gone 11-6-1, 8-9-1 and lately 10-7-1. They seem to be peaking at the right time.
Fairbanks is on the opposite track, dogged by a 0-6-2 plunge. And the Ice Dogs have only four games left. The relatively good news: Those games are all at home and against teams above them in the standings – two against Kenai River on the upcoming weekend, then two against Chippewa. Basically, the Ice Dogs need to run the table with regulation wins. That, and hope results elsewhere favor their cause.
The sixth-place Wolverines face the challenge of trying to leapfrog two teams – fourth-place Chippewa and fifth-place Fairbanks – to seize a playoff position. Their good news: They entertain Chippewa in a three-game home series starting Friday. They close the regular season with four straight games against Kenai River, two at home, then two in Soldotna.
The Wolverines beat last-place and visiting Springfield 6-2 on Friday, before falling 4-2 to the Jr. Blues on Saturday, then rebounding with a 6-3 win in the series finale Sunday at Ben Boeke Arena.
Wolverines defenseman Trent Powell of Soldotna, ticketed for Long Island University, crushed the weekend with three goals, two assists and a plus-4 rating. His consecutive goals three minutes apart Sunday took Anchorage from a 2-1 deficit to a 3-2 lead it never surrendered.
Powell’s 13-22—35 totals in 51 games has him tied for second on the circuit in goals by a defenseman. He’s riding a four-game point streak in which he has produced 3-3—6 totals.