Soldotna, Alaska | December 1, 2023 | Jacqueline Hixssen
The Wolverines are leaving Soldotna with their first loss against the Brown Bears.
The teams left the ice after a quiet first period. Anchorage only got five shots on goal throughout the first, with Kenai tallying 12.
In net for the Wolverines, Liam Beerman deflected an early 1v1 shot from Kenai, quickly followed by Fedya Nikolayenya finding Bryce Monrean whose shot ricocheted off Danny Bagnole’s skate for the first goal of the night.
Nikolayenya got his second point of the night four minutes later, finding Ameen Ghosheh for a short handed goal, bringing the score to 2-0, Wolverines.
The Brown Bears reacted less than a minute later, zipping two goals within 30 seconds.
An ignored tripping call on Kenai led to Kenai taking another shot, resulting in another deflection from Beerman.
Kenai took the lead at the end of the second and kept the lead until 2:35 in the final period when Oliver Salo capitalized on a pass from Cole Christian to tie the game at 3-3.
Kenai nearly took the lead again with 30 seconds left in the contest when they crashed the net, but another save from Beerman forced the teams into overtime.
Monrean went to take the faceoff with 3.6 seconds left in the game, when a misconduct penalty was called, sending Monrean to the box.
Joe Manning of Kenai attempted a backdoor shot in the third minute of overtime, ANOTHER deflection from Beerman keeping the game live.
Overtime was scoreless, resulting in the Wolverines and Brown Bears going to a shootout.
Monrean started the shootout for the Wolverines, saved by Kenai – followed by a Kenai goal.
Powell and Salo took the last two shots for the Wolverines, both missing.
The two will meet again tomorrow at The Ben with a 7:00pm puck drop.
