The first period opened with both teams trading scoring opportunities.  The Magicians’ goalie Atte Tolvanen/Finland played well in the nets especially controlling the rebounds.  The Kenai defense played well moving the Magicians out the slot on the Magician attacks.

Magicians’ Colin Hernon scored the opening goal to put the Magicians up 1-0 with two minutes left in the first.  Hernon burst free, beating the defense on the right side, putting the puck in at the net to put the Magicians up 1-0.  Derick Kuchera and Jack Wiess got assists.

Late in the first period, Kenai started clogging neutral ice and the Magicians started dumping  the puck.

Both teams scored in the second period.  But the Magicians started to lose control of the game.  When the play became aggressive around the Kenai net, players started to exchange words and the Magicians started to lose focus.  They drew a couple of dumb retaliation penalties behind the play.

At the 14 minute mark of the second period, Kenai’s Conor Deal scored for the Brown Bears to tie the game 1-1.  He scored on a rebound when the Magicians’ forwards failed on the back check.

Seven minutes later, the Magicians’ Will Johnson scored shortly after big hit by the Magicians along the right boards.  A Kenai player tried to hit the cross ice pass.  Johnson anticipated the play and took the Kenai River pass in the slot beating the breakout and one-timing the puck into the net to put the Magicians up 2-1.

The second period ended with the Magicians up 2-1.  The play of the Kyle Krueger, Denis Shevyrin, and Travis Koepe line started to get the Magicians re-focused on their game.  That and good discipline on the penalty kill by the Magicians was kept the Magicians in the game in the second period.

The third period started out with Kenai River back on the physical game.  One of the best shifts of the night was put together by Mario Bichani, Alexander Konnov, and Cody Milligan.  That play started to switch momentum to the Magicians, but was wasted.   The Magicians lost focus again as Kenai upped the physical play.

Losing focus means penalty kills.  At the 11 minute mark, the Magician drew two penalties 15 seconds apart.  The power play resulted in a goal that the refs blew.  A Brown Bear followed a shot on Magicians goalie Tolvanen from the slot area, but the player didn’t stop and delivered a check on the Magicians’ goalie as the puck rebounded to the right slot to Alec Butcher.  Butcher buried the puck while the Magicians’ goalie was still being checked.  Butcher’s goal tied the game 2-2.

It would have been the key play of the game if it hadn’t been for Kyle Krueger.  Krueger scored the game winner with five minutes left in the game.  A Magician hit Krueger on a quick outlet pass and he beat the Kenai defense at the blue line and drove the net but was hooked by one defense man on his solo to the net and tripped by the goalie as he broke left.  Krugger was sent sliding into the left corner and the puck slid to the net.  After a delay, the refs ruled a penalty shot.  Krueger buried it from the slot to give the Magicians the win 3-2.

The Magicians must have been celebrating their Saturday win.  When they took the ice for Sunday’s second game against Kenai River, they were definitely “out of sync”.  They should have taken a page from the Wilderness.

The Wilderness lost their opening home game to a tough Fairbanks team 2-1 Friday and came back to win 5-2 Saturday.  NAHL teams, on the road, will struggle in their second game especially f the home team takes the first game, they should take the second.

The Sunday game started well with Derick Kuchera scoring the opening goal.  Cody Milligan got the assist.

After Kuchera’s goal, the Magicians’ stopped playing their game.  Instead, they played the Brown Bears game and stopped playing hockey.  The Magicians drew 6 penalties in the first period; Kenai drew 5 penalties.  In all, the refs called 29 penalties that resulted in 22 power plays.  The Magicians failed to score in their 10 power plays; Kenai scored twice in their 12 power plays.

Do the math.  Take away the two power play goals and the empty netter at the end of the game and the Magicians win.

The first power play goal came at the 8 minute mark of the first period.  The Magicians had put themselves into a 5-on-3, nearly two minute penalty kill, situation.  Halfway through the penalty kill, the ref ruled a penalty shot (see pictures 1-5).  Fortunately, Magician goalie Toivanen, made the big stop.  At that point, most fans were glad to see the penalty shot rather than another 2 minute penalty.

The Magician’s killed the 5-on-3, but the Magicians could not get set in the penalty kill for the 5-on-4 (Kenai had continued to control the puck in the Magicians’ zone.  They ended up in a diamond formation and left the right weakside open.  Kenai seized the opportunity and firing a pass from the right to left crease to Connor Deal for an easy goal.  The game was tied 1-1.

After that goal, Kenai dropped into a four player across the Magicians’ half of the neutral zone and played dump the puck.  The Magician forwards could not figure out how to reverse the puck or use the boards.  Kenai’s play worked.
Both teams played flat in the first minutes of the second period.  The Magicians opened on a power play and did nothing and then picked up a tripping penalty 3 minutes into the period.  It resulted in a Kenai River power play goal by Albin Karlsson to put the Brown Bears up 2-1.

The key play of the game came with 4 minutes left in the second period.  The refs didn’t blow it.  As a result, they blew it.

Behaps they got used to the Kenai River bench yelling “ice, ice” on every Magician pass in the Kenai zone in the first period.  When a Kenai defense man tried to hit a breaking Brown Bear in neutral ice by driving the puck off the right boards and missed; the puck traveled the length of the ice touching no one, but no icing was called.

Maybe the refs, being used to a penalty kill situation since so many were called, thought it was a clearing the zone play.  The Magicians’ defense relaxed on the play and scrambled to recover.  They didn’t.  Jacob Davidson scored what turned out to be the game winner putting Kenai up 3-1.

Just as the period was ending, Tony Uglem breathed life back into the Magicians.  Uglem picked up a puck at the end line on the left boards in the Kenai zone and fired a quick shot at the Brown Bears’ goal.  The puck hit Kris Oldham in the left shoulder and bounced down into the upper left corner to cut the Kenai lead to 3-2.

The third period was as penalty filled as the first two.  From the 3 minute mark to the 13 minute mark, the teams were playing either on the power play or the penalty kill.  The Magicians never got rolling.  They let Kenai River take them out of their game.  Kenai’s Alec Butcher scored the empty netter to end the game 4-2.

Midwest Division leader, Fairbanks (7-1-0) hosts Corpus Christi next weekend in the first meeting of the two teams this season.  Coulee Region swept their two games with Janesville winning both by the same score of 4-1 to stay in second place.  They travel to Soldotna to play the third place Kenai River (5-3-0) in a two game series.

The fourth place Wilderness (3-1-2) and the fifth place Magicians (3-2-1) play the first of two home-and-home series this weekend.  The Magicians head to Cloquet for a Friday game and return Saturday for a 7:05 PM home game against the Wilderness.

The last place Wenatchee Wild (3-3-0) had a rough time in Bismarck losing twice to the Bobcats 4-3 and 5-2.  Things will not get easier for the Wild; they travel to Michigan to play North Division leader, Port Huron (6-1-1).

Kenai River’s Alec Butcher and Austin’s big forward Jay Dickman lead the NAHL in scoring after week 2.  Butcher (11 points/6 goals) and Dickman (10 points/7 goals) are the only two NAHL players that have scored 10 or more points.  Dickman is an impressive +9 in the early season.

Top goalie in the early season is Coulee Region’s Adam Carlson/Edina.  Aberdeen’s Chad Catt and the two Wilderness goalies Frank Oplinger and Kasimir Kaskisuo are right behind Carlson.  Wenatchee’s Chase Perry/Andover, MN lost his first NAHL hockey game.  He is 2-1 in the nets for the Wild after the 5-2 loss at Bismarck.