Goalie leads Avs to win

SOLDOTNA — On Friday, Alaska goalie Austin Maginnis and Kenai River goalie Nick Dries refused to let Alaska head coach Dave Boitz and Kenai River head coach Brent Agrusa live up to their reputation of engaging in high-scoring contests. Maginnis made 39 saves and Dries made 35 saves as the Avalanche notched a 3-1 victory at the Soldotna Sports Center.

“It was a 3-1 game that could have been 12-11,” Boitz said. “Their goalie played well too. ... There were a lot of chances for scoring.”

Before the game, Agrusa had said that Boitz’s Alexandria Blizzard and Agrusa’s Helena Bighorns used to face off in scoreboard-flipping affairs in the early part of this decade.

The Avalanche hadn’t played in three weeks coming into the contest. Boitz said the rust showed on everyone except for Maginnis. Maginnis did some of his finest work on power plays, holding the Brown Bears scoreless in eight power-play opportunities. That includes two times when the Brown Bears held a five-on-three advantage for more than a minute.

“We like the shots we are getting off,” Kenai River assistant coach Zac DesJardins said. “We have to step up and bury more of them.”

Boitz said, for the most part, his team’s power play was rusty. Due to Macginns’ work in the net, the Avs enjoyed an advantage on the power play, converting on 1 of 7 opportunities and scoring another goal just after the man advantage ended.

The Avs’ power-play goal came with 3:57 left in the first period when Jake Parenteu fired a shot from the point that slipped through traffic and into the net.

After Kenai River’s George Isham clanged a close shot off the pipe 2:30 into the second period, the Avs pressed hard for a two-goal advantage. With 8:47, Dries kept the Avs scoreless on a power play by diving back and covering a puck sitting inches from the goal line.

Just 30 seconds later, Isham gave the puck away at center ice to Ryan Kowal, who skated in all alone on Dries, but failed to convert the breakaway.

“Nick Dries played a great game,” DesJardins said. “He gave us a chance to win tonight.”

The Bears stopped the flurry of Avalanche opportunities just 20 seconds later, when a bunch of activity in front of the Alaska net led to Kevin

Wentland stuffing the puck in for a 1-1 game. Patrick Sullivan and Brad Fusaro assisted on the play.

The Avs grabbed the lead back with 2:06 left in the second when Kowal controlled a centering pass with a defender on his back and managed to spin and score.

With 17:29 left in the third period, the Avs had been off the power play for four seconds when Justin Giles scored on a two-on-one rush.

With 16:22 to play in the game, the Brown Bears went on a five-on-three power play for 1:44. Wentland got a wide-open chance in front of Macginnis, but the goalie was able to preserve the two-goal lead.

Results of Saturday’s game  in Kenai were not available prior to press time.

See www.frontiersman.com/sports for more.

Alaska 3, Kenai River 1

Friday, Soldotna Sports Center

First period — 1. Alaska, Parenteu (McNeely, Giles), pp, 16:03. Penalties —

Alaska 6 for 15:00, Kenai River 4 for 11:00.

Second period — 2. Kenai River, Wentland (Sullivan, Fusaro), 12:20. 3.

Alaska, Kowal (Cohen, Baldwin), 17:54. Penalties — Alaska 5 for 8:00, Kenai

River 4 for 8:00.

Third period — 4. Alaska, Giles (Haider, Kowal), 2:31. Penalties — Alaska 3

for 6:00, Kenai River 2 for 4:00.

Shots on goal — Alaska 9-13-16—38; Kenai River 10-10-20—40; Goalies — Alaska, Maginnis (40 shots, 39 saves); Kenai River, Dries (38 shots, 35 saves); Power plays — Alaska 1 for 7; Kenai River 0 for 8.