Photo by Stephanie Burgoon/Alaska Sports Report
The Anchorage Wolverines, courtesy of their searing 17-game point streak, have catapulted themselves into position to win their first North American Hockey League Midwest Division crown in their three-season existence.
The Wolverines (37-13-6, 80 points) continued their blistering run last weekend with a 4-3 win Friday over visiting Fairbanks and a 2-1 shootout loss to the Ice Dogs in Saturday’s series finale at Ben Boeke Arena. That three-point weekend drew the Wolverines within two points of the division-leading Wisconsin Windigo (38-15-6, 82 points).
But Wisconsin has just one regular-season game remaining, while the Wolverines have four games left, starting with a series Friday and Saturday against the visiting third-place Janesville Jets. The Wolverines wrap the regular season with a series April 12-13 at Fairbanks.
Anchorage, which has produced franchise records for wins and points, can finish no worse than a franchise-best second place in the eight-team division. The Wolverines finished third in their inaugural season of 2021-22, when they made it to the Robertson Cup Final, and finished fifth, and out of the playoffs, in 2022-23.
The Wolverines beat Fairbanks on Friday courtesy of Tyler Hennen’s two goals. Saturday, their lone goal came from Anchorage’s Patrick Tolan, who in his NAHL debut scored on his first shot. Wolverines goaltender Vaughn Makar made 30 saves in regulation and overtime, and stopped five of six bids in the shootout. Ice Dogs forward Gage Leonard of Anchorage scored the only goal of the six-round skills competition.
Meanwhile, in Soldotna, the Kenai River Brown Bears and Janesville spent a three-game series absolutely cratering goalies’ statistics.
Kenai River won 10-5 on Friday, when 16 different Brown Bears scored at least one point, and prevailed 8-7 in OT on Saturday after surrendering four unanswered goals in a third-period span of 8 minutes, 4 seconds. A mere 14 different Brown Bears racked at least a point in that game. Those games marked Kenai River’s two highest goal outputs of the season. Janesville rebounded for a 7-2 win in Sunday’s series finale.
So, that’s a combined 39 goals from Kenai River and Janesville in three games.
The combined save percentage from the teams’ goalies in the series: .777. Ouch.
Mac Swanson
In the U.S. Hockey League, Fargo Force left wing Mac Swanson of Anchorage on Friday extended his career-best point streak to 12 games with a goal and two assists in a 6-1 win over Waterloo. The three-point effort on a night the Force clinched their second straight Anderson Cup marked his fourth consecutive multiple-point game and gave him 7-13—20 totals across his dozen-game streak. Swanson was held off the scoresheet in Saturday’s 4-2 win over Waterloo.
With 25-48—73 scoring totals and a plus-38 rating in 52 games, Swanson ranks first in the league in assists and plus-minus, and tied for second in points. He also set franchise single-season records for assists and points over the weekend.
Also in the USHL, Sioux City Musketeers forward Colin Kessler of Anchorage delivered one goal and one helper in Friday’s 5-1 home win over Des Moines.