Alaska's two NAHL junior teams took decidedly different paths to victory Friday night -- the Kenai River Brown Bears stormed back on the road and the Fairbanks Ice Dogs held on at home.
Kenai River trailed 2-0 in the final minute of the second period at Wenatchee before Joey Sardina got them on the board with eight ticks left before intermission. Ryan Muere tacked on a goal five minutes into the third period and Joseph Kaszupski scored with four minutes to go. Presto, 3-2 Brown Bears win, thanks in no small part to Alec Derks' 25 saves. Also, three goals on a mere 17 shots works.
Fairbanks, meanwhile, led the Minnesota Wilderness 3-0 early in the second period in the Golden Heart City. But Minnesota's Darian Romanko scored with 1:36 to go in regulation to cut the Ice Dogs' lead to 3-2 and scored again, an extra-attacker strike, with just 22 seconds left. Still, Fairbanks survived to get to the shootout and won the skills contest 3-2, for a 4-3 win. Fairbanks got shootout goals from Todd Burgess, Chandler Mabry and Ethan Somoza.
Fairbanks has won six straight games, the last two by shootout and three by shootout in that winnng streak, to improve to a Midwest Division-leading 11-6-1.
Kenai River, with two straight wins, is edging closer to .500 at 7-8-0.