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Before the season started, if someone would’ve offered Anchorage Wolverines head coach Mike Aikens the opportunity to make the playoffs by winning two of the team’s last three games, he said he most “certainly would’ve” taken it.
Heading into the three-game series with the Minnesota Magicians that begins Thursday night, that is exactly the win-and-in scenario that the Wolverines (68 points) find themselves in with a slim one-point advantage over Janesville (67) in the standings.
“We control our own destiny and four points locks a playoff spot up for us,” Aikens said.
The Wolverines can still make the postseason if they only manage to win one game in the series. Under that scenario, the Springfield Jr. Blues would have to win at least one of their two games against Janesville this weekend.
“Mentally we’re trying to go into it to win every game and get six points out of this weekend,” Aikens said.
While the opportunity to extend their season means a lot to everyone on the team and coaching staff, it holds a special reverence for starting goalie Raythan Robbins. He was born and raised in Anchorage and graduated from Dimond high school in 2020.
“It’s unbelievable,” he said. “At the start of this I was so excited just to play back home after being gone for so long. To be back here in front of friends, family and almost all of Anchorage. There are so many people and we’ve had so much amazing fan support so to get it done and get in the playoffs would be great and we’ll see what happens from there.”
The 19-year-old has had a strong first season for Anchorage with 19 wins, 865 saves with a save percentage of .921.
“We just have to take it one game at a time really,” Robbins said. “The boys are ready to go and we’re excited for it. I think we’re in a great spot so Thursday is going to be a big game for us to start it off right.”
The Wolverines have been in the “one game at a time” mindset for the whole season, Robbins said, and won’t waiver from it with so much at stake.
“Thursday we’ll worry about Thursday and after that Friday then Saturday,” Robbins said. “I think we just have to control what we can control and not worry about what other teams are doing. We just have to go in and win.”
Punching their playoff ticket is easier said than done, especially against a Magicians team that Aikens says is dangerous offensively.
“They have a lot of guys that can score,” Aikens said. “We need to really take care of the puck and not turn it over, and not give them odd-man rushes. We need to make sure that we’re doing everything we can to play with a lot of structure and when we get chances we need to bury our opportunities. Everybody knows how important this weekend is and if you can’t get up for these games then you might want to check your pulse to see if you’re still kicking and still with us.”
Even though the Wolverines don’t technically need to win out to secure a spot in the playoffs, they don’t intend on leaving anything up to chance and are glad that their fate is in their own hands.
“It’s great because you can’t rely on another team,” Robbins said. “We haven’t really gotten much help from other teams all year so I’d rather have it be this way where we just have to go out and win and we’re in.”
Aikens says that there is a process to winning and Anchorage’s was established last summer when team came together to embark on their 8-month journey.
“It started back on August 16th,” Aikens said. “We have a routine that we go through and you really hope that at this point of the year, it’s kind of out of the coaching staff’s hands for the most part. It’s up to the players and they have to get themselves ready to go and really mentally prepare for war, to go to battle every single shift, to go out and find a way to win hockey games.”