Kenai River Brown Bear hockey returns to Soldotna Friday night.
Earlier this year, it wasn’t clear the Bears would be playing at all this season. Financial struggles put the future of the team on the ropes, but a robust fundraising effort ensured the Bears would be back for their 11th campaign.
The Brown Bears are 4-6 as they hit the ice Friday night for their first home game of the season against the Shreveport Mudbugs. At practice Thursday morning, first year head coach Josh Petrich was working out the team with a little three puck D zone.The defense will need to step up, as the Brown Bears had some tough one point losses on the road trip to start the season.
But overall, they’ve outscored their opponents 36 to 31 over the first ten games. Petrich says his team is ready to play at home on some bigger ice and hopefully turn those close losses into W’s.
“We want to be a fast puck possession team. We have a big rink here to utilize. It’s going to be tough for teams to come in and not play on this normally and have to get used to it. We have a lot of space. And special teams, we’ve been very good on the road so far and we want to continue that now that we have more time and space. I think you’re going to see a team that’s competitive, it’s fast. But it’s not going to get pushed around either. By no means are we going to back down to other teams. We’re going to play in your face hockey and put tons of pressure on teams with our speed.”
As part of the developmental North American Hockey League, players are looking to use their time as Brown Bears to get noticed by college and pro scouts. Petrich says there will be some eyes from Division 1 college programs here this weekend, as several of his players are earning some attention.
“Some teams will tell us that we’re here to develop hockey players, then human beings. We’re here to develop great young men for this community. And in the same period, we’re developing them to be great hockey players and advance them on to their next goal in their career, be it professional hockey oversees, be it college hockey in the U.S. I would say we have eight or nine guys that are already talking to Division 1 teams just from our success after the first ten games.”
Ideally, teams at this level will see about half their roster advance up the hockey ladder next year and half return. Coach Petrich says if all 23 on the team get signed elsewhere, that’s great, too.
“By no means am I saying that winning takes a back seat. But I’m a firm believer that if we advance our guys, winning is going to come hand in hand. They correlate very well.”
The Brown Bears will have a test in visiting Shreveport this weekend. The Mudbugs sit comfortably atop the South Division standings.
“Shreveport is no slouch and we know that 100 percent. They’re first place in their division. The South Division is always tough. They’re a fast team. They’re a veteran team. It’s going to be fast, it’s going to be fun.”
And this home opener is really a special one, considering it was no guarantee just a few months ago. Brown Bear fans and supporters rallied to raise more than $300,000 to keep the team going this season.
“Not only is this a great day for our boys to get our home opener and get back in front of our guys, but this is going to be a great day for our community, for (us) to say thank you for everything they’ve done for us in the last six months. The whole team is really excited for what this can be.”
The puck drops at 7:30 Friday night at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex. Shreveport is in town for a two game set, but the Brown Bears are sticking around for a long home stand. They won’t hit the road again until after Thanksgiving.