Anchorage’s Matt Johnson scored two goals Saturday at Ben Boeke Ice Arena as the Wolverines defeated the Kenai River Brown Bears 7-2.
The win pushed the Wolverines’ North American Hockey League points total to 62, which allowed the expansion team to leapfrog Janesville (61) and regain fourth place in the Midwest Division, from which four teams qualify for the playoffs.
Johnson opened the scoring 3 minutes, 25 seconds, into the first period and scored his 20th goal of the season in the second period of a game that was never close.
The Wolverines got a short-handed unassisted goal from Drake Albers, his ninth, at the 14:36 mark of the opening period and went into the first intermission leading 2-0.
The score was 6-0 by the end of the second period as Clay Allen (11), Hunter Schmitz (8) and Hunter Bischoff (11) joined Johnson in lighting the lamp before the final intermission.
Talon Sigurdson made it 7-0 with his team-leading 36th goal 1:33 into the third period, and then Kenai River’s Sean Henry (7) and Caden Triggs (13) rounded out the scoring.
Shane Soderwall backstopped the win with 25 saves for Anchorage while Levi Gho and Bryant Marks shared duties in net for Kenai and combined for 20 saves.
Up next for the Wolverines is a three-game home set with the Chippewa Steel, who sit seventh in the division standings.