After the Wolverines battled back to tie the score in the third period, their in-state rivals surged ahead with a pair of late power-play goals.
Anchorage Wolverines goalie Liam Ernst reflects on a goal in the second period during a 9-2 home opener loss to the Minnesota Wilderness at the Sullivan Arena on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025. The second leg of the Anchorage Wolverines’ three-week homestand got off to a tough start Friday night at Sullivan Arena, with a 5-3 loss to the rival Fairbanks Ice Dogs in the first of a two-game weekend series.
While the Wolverines managed to tie the game in the first 10 minutes of the third period after being outscored 3-1 in the second, a pair of power-play goals in the final two minutes sealed their fate and extended their losing streak to five straight. “I thought we came out in the third period and played hard, scored a couple of goals, and I’m proud of the way we battled,” head coach Mike Aikens said. Even though they gave up a pair of goals while short-handed on the ice over the final two periods, including what was ultimately the game-winner before Fairbanks got an insurance goal on an empty-netter, Aikens thinks the team has made “real good strides” in their penalty kill. “I think that was a good step in the right direction for us,” Aikens said. “There’s still a lot of things that we need to clean up, and I think winning is a process. You have to learn how to win, and I think we’re learning those lessons.” While he’d prefer to be learning those lessons while stacking wins instead continuing on their current skid, the signs of progress have been apparent. “It was frustrating to battle back and play that hard and then not get any points out of it when it was all said and done,” Aikens said.Had the Wolverines been able to force the game into overtime, even a loss would’ve resulted in them gaining points in the standings. But since they were defeated in regulation, they came away with just more hard-earned lessons to learn from. Anchorage spent most of the final six minutes of the third period playing short-handed. Eagle River’s own Aiden Lawson was sent to the penalty box for four minutes as a result of two controversial high-sticking fouls, but Anchorage held strong and didn’t allow Fairbanks to capitalize. “We’ve worked hard at the , we’ve done some video work, we worked hard on it in practice and I think what you saw tonight was guys that were willing to block shots and made the commitment to do the things we needed to do to have success,” Aikens said. That effort was followed up by the team getting hit with a too many players on the ice penalty that caused them to spend two more minutes short-handed, which is when disaster struck at the 1:35 mark.“We still have to make sure that we’re being disciplined, staying out of the penalty box and not putting ourselves in those positions,” Aikens said. Despite his team’s rough start to the season, he believes they are close to turning a corner and becoming a winning team again. “This is going to be a process,” Aikens said. “We’re a brand-new team. We’ve got five returners from last year, and some of those guys didn’t play a lot. I’m not accepting of losing by any means, but it’s going to be a process.” Some of the spectators were evacuees from Western Alaska, where the aftermath of Typhoon Halong has destroyed homes and devastated communities. Many displaced residents were airlifted to Anchorage, hundreds of miles away from their home villages, and with shelter and recovery efforts underway, some sought a temporary reprieve at Friday night’s game. “Those people are going through a lot more than what we are right now,” Aikens said. “I would’ve liked to have gotten a win for them, but we at least battled and we showed some pride there, and guys laid it on the line there in the third.”Josh Reed is a sports reporter for the Anchorage Daily News. He's a graduate of West High School and the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.Shutdown impact: What it means for workers, federal programs and the economy
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