Avalanche sweep Brown Bears

SOLDOTNA — Jamie Smith felt he had no other choice.

Placed in a tight spot, forced to make a bold decision, the Alaska Avalanche coach didn’t hesitate.

And it paid off — big time.

Trailing by a goal entering the third period, Smith benched his second line, yet the Avalanche still managed a pair of third-period goals in capturing a wild 6-5 victory over the Kenai River Brown Bears Friday at the Soldotna Sports Center.

“It’s due to the fact that … the effort really wasn’t there. They were kind of riding the blue line, trying to get the big breaks all the time and we had defensive breakdowns,” Smith said about the benching. “So, we needed to send a message to some guys.”

Consider it delivered.

Not just to his crew, but also to the Brown Bears, who opened up a 2-0 lead within the first eight minutes of the game only to surrender that cushion, along with a 4-3 edge early in the second, in snapping a two-game winning streak.

“It’s just not consistent, just very inconsistent hockey. I’m disappointed,” a visibly distraught Kenai River coach Mike Flanagan said. “I’m disappointed for the fans that came out here to watch. I just feel like we weren’t prepared to play. We weren’t prepared to win.”

Flanagan hopes his team regroups for the remaining five games of this unusual series, in which both teams will face off a total of seven consecutive times between Friday and Nov. 25.

“We hate the fact that we have to play seven straight games in a row, but the fact that we can come out there and get that first win kind of sets the tone a little bit. Then you can kind of move on from there,” Smith said. “Our goal’s to come down, if we can go away and get splits or get points in each game, that’s the key for us right now.”

Garrett Bossert scored just 1:45 into the contest off an assist from Brett Englebright and Bryan Murphy made it 2-0 at the 12:36 mark when he intercepted the puck just outside the blue line, darted toward the right side of the net just ahead of a pair of defenders and slipped it past Alaska goaltender Dusan Sidor’s lower far side.

Alaska’s Tyler Currier trimmed the deficit to one only 16 seconds later when he put the puck by Kenai River goalie Matt Wichorek, who denied 28 of the 34 shots he faced in the game. Englebright answered on a 5-on-3 with 4:48 to play in the first when he poked in a rebound off a Justin Hancock shot, and it appeared the Brown Bears would head into the locker room with a comfortable lead.

But following a holding penalty on Sebastian Johansson, the Avalanche took advantage of that as well as a dropped stick by Wichorek, who stood in goal with his just pads, and wasn’t able to corral a Kyle Pichler shot that ricocheted off his body and into the back of the net, making it 3-2 with just 27.6 seconds left.

Alaska then knotted the game 11 seconds into the second period when Dustin Skinner scored off an assist from Sean Ranum, silencing the crowd of 672.

The comeback didn’t end there, though.

Skinner gave the Avalanche their first lead of the contest when he scored his second goal of the game, breaking in on Wichorek and deking him to the left before backhanding it over his right shoulder at the 14:59 mark of the middle frame.

The Brown Bears capitalized on a power play when Englebright sent a cross-ice pass from just inside the blue line to the low post where Hancock wristed it past Sidor for the equalizer.

About a minute later, Jeffrey Harris, the Brown Bears’ leading point scorer, put his team back on top when he stole the puck along the right boards and skated towards the lone defender. Rather than passing to his wide-open brother, Kevin, he sent a wrist shot sailing by Sidor (40 saves on 45 shots) with just 25 seconds remaining in the second.

That’s when the Brown Bears’ defensive breakdowns took their toll, coincidentally at the same time Smith yanked his second line.

Wichorek stopped Tommy Engseth on a breakaway but seconds later, Joe Harren rifled a shot through traffic and past the Brown Bears’ goalie, knotting the game at five only 4:32 into the third.

Again facing an onslaught of shots, Wichorek stood strong.

He first denied Jeremiah Dargis, who received a pass just inside the blue line and skated in on Wichorek before the goalie made a sprawling kick save.

Then he covered a slapper, defeated a three-on-one and easily saved a wrister with 2:40 to play.

But Wichorek could only do so much.

Dargis, leading a three-on-two, sent a shot into the crease from the far side, which Wichorek saved, but Currier was there to poke the rebound into the near-empty net for the game-winner.

Smith said he could see the goal coming.

“We had some posts, we had some things coming that I thought that momentum was going our direction,” he said, adding it occurred with his second line of Larry Kincaid, Alex Rasmussen and Michael McCurtain riding the bench. “It worked out great. We played better, actually. We played a lot better.

“I thought, third period, we played pretty dang good. It worked out for us. We ended up getting the two goals, which was key.”

Avs win shootout

Alaska completed the two-game sweep of Kenai River with a 4-3 shootout win over the Brown Bears Saturday at the Soldotna Sports Center.

Dustin Skinner scored in the tiebreaker to lift the Avs to 9-11-1, and keep Alaska tied with Topeka in third place of the NAHL South Division standings.

Kenai skated to a two-goal advantage in the first period, but Alaska scored three times in the second to take the lead.

Joe Harren, Kyle Pichler and Jeremiah Dargis each scored for Alaska.

Nathan Corey stopped 28 Kenai shots and earned the win in goal.

Matthew Carroll can be reached at matthew.carroll@

peninsulaclarion.com.

AVALANCHE 6, BROWN BEARS 5

Friday, Soldotna Sports Center

Alaska 2 2 2 —6

Kenai River 3 2 0 —5

First period — 1. Kenai, Bossert (Englebright), 1:45; 2. Kenai, Murphy (McGlasson), 7:24; 3. Alaska, Currier (McCurtain), 7:40; 4. Kenai, Englebright (Sturdevant, Hancock), 15:12 (pp); 5. Alaska, Pichler (Detlefsen, Dargis), 19:33 (pp). Penalties — Alaska 2 for 4:00; Kenai River 2 for 4:00.

Second period — 6. Alaska, Skinner (Ranum), 0:11; 7. Alaska, Skinner (Zierden, Harren), 5:01; 8. Kenai, Hancock (Englebright, Sturdevant), 18:36 (pp); 9. Kenai, J. Harris (Simson), 19:35. Penalties — Alaska 1 for 2:00.

Third period — 10. Alaska, Harren (Kelly, Detlefsen), 4:32; 11. Alaska, Currier (Dargis, Detlefsen), 18:09. Penalties — Alaska 2 for 4:00.

Shots on goal — Alaska 8-11-15—34; Kenai River 16-16-13—45.

Goalies — Alaska, Sidor (45 shots-40 saves); Kenai River, Wichorek (34 shots-28 saves).