Wendt’s Two Goals Lead Brown Bears to Share of Division Lead

Hunter Wendt scored a pair of first-period goals Saturday to lead the Fairbanks Ice Dogs to a 5-2 win over the Kenai River Brown Bears and into a share of the North American Hockey League Midwest Division lead.

Jack Johnston added a goal and an assist while Logan Neaton made 19 saves.              

Alex Schilling made 28 saves Saturday to lead the Austin Bruins to a 1-0 shutout of the Coulee Region Chill and into a tie for first place in the Central Division.

BUSY GOALIES: Christian Stoever had 45 saves Sunday when the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights edged the Philadelphia Rebels, 2-1, in an NAHL game.               

Connor Poczos posted his first NAHL shutout with 38 saves when the Springfield Jr. Blues beat the Minnesota Magicians, 4-0.               

Ryan Kenny made 40 saves Saturday for the New Ulm Steel in a 1-0 North American 3 Hockey League shutout of the Granite City Lumberjacks.               

FULL STEAM: The Steamboat Wranglers won two more weekend games, allowing them to approach the midway point in the Rocky Mountain Junior Hockey League with a 12-point lead in the standings.   

Steamboat won, 2-1 and 5-2, in a weekend sweep of the host Colorado Rampage.            

The Wranglers (15-4-0-0) came from behind in both games.              

Blue Hildebrand made 27 saves in the first win.             

Nevada White scored the first and last goals in a comeback from a 2-0 deficit while completing the sweep.               

SCORING STAMPEDE: Kevin Conley returned to the USHL this season after winning a national championship with the University of Denver in April, and led the way when the Sioux Falls Stampede had six players produce multiple-point games Friday and three more Saturday while winning two games.

The Stampede improved to 6-0-2-1 with points in each of the past nine games.             

UMass commit Khristian Acosta had a goal and two assists in Friday’s 6-3 win over USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program. Some of the Stampede’s other college-bound players had big nights as well. Matt Quercia (Boston University), Mitchell Mattson (North Dakota) and Jaxon Nelson (Minnesota) each had a goal and an assist while Conley and A.J. Villella (Northeastern) recorded two assists each.               

Conley notched three assists in Saturday’s 4-2 win over the Tri-City Storm. Artem Ivanyuzhenkov, who had two assists, and Nolan Walker, who had one assist, each scored goals.               

GOOD KNIGHTS: The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights won Sunday’s only Eastern Hockey League game, completing a weekend sweep of the Connecticut RoughRiders in an otherwise quiet weekend in the league.               

Anthony Starzi led the Knights to a 6-4, 3-2 sweep.               

Jake Fuss and Starzi each scored two goals and added three assists in Friday’s win. Thomas Walker made 31 saves.               

Sunday’s game was tied 1-1 until Starzi scored a power-play goal at 9:24 of the third period.               

August Nyblom rallied Connecticut into a tie with an unassisted, power-play goal.              

Starzi then assisted Tyler Nielsen’s game-winning, short-handed goal with only 49 seconds left.             

ONE-TIMERS: Jordan Muzzillo, a 20-year-old defenseman from Capron, Illinois, who is an assistant captain and team co-scoring leader with the NAHL’s Springfield Jr. Blues, has committed to play at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. … Jake Cox and Jack Hatton scored two goals each Sunday to help the St. Louis Jr. Blues extend their NA3HL winning streak to 19 games with an 11-1 rout of the Rochester Ice Hawks.

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.