On the night Cole Chrisitan became the fourth member of the Anchorage Wolverines’ 20-goal club, his team made the final two weeks of the North American Hockey League regular season more compelling.
Christian scored twice in the third period Saturday, including an empty netter with 20 seconds remaining at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex. The goals – Christian’s 20th and 21st – made the difference in the Wolverines’ 6-4 triumph over the Kenai River Brown Bears.
Danny Bagnole bagged his 26th goal in the first period. UAF signee Tai Ushio scored his 22nd in the second, the first of three from Anchorage. Local product Toby Carlson notched his 20th goal in Friday’s 6-1 win at Sullivan Arena.
The Wolverines (33-16-6) won twice on the weekend and moved into a Midwest Division second-place tie with the Fairbanks Ice Dogs (33-15-6). The in-state rivals each sport 72 standings points after Fairbanks fell to the division-leading Wisconsin Windigo 5-2 on Saturday. With four regular-season games left, Wisconsin sits three points shy of locking up the division title without the need of any tiebreakers or losses from Anchorage and Fairbanks.
Fairbanks and Anchorage are nearly assured of a colossal clash in the best-of-five opening round of the Robertson Cup playoffs. The Ice Dogs own a game in hand on the Wolverines, which will be played Thursday at Fairbanks’ Big Dipper Ice Arena against the Chippewa (Wisc.) Steel. The Midwest’s second-place finisher will own home-ice advantage in the first round.
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