Alaska trip begins with a two-game set against Kenai River
The details
Who: Chippewa Steel (10-4) 20 points 3rd Midwest Division at Kenai River (9-5) 21 points 2nd Midwest Division
Puck Drops Friday, November 8th 10:30 CT | Saturday, November 9th 10:30 CT- Soldotna Regional Sports Complex
Watch: Hockey TV
Follow: @chippewasteel
Soldotna, Alaska– The Steel will begin their four-game, 12-day road trip to Alaska with a weekend matchup with the Kenai River Brown Bears.
What to Watch For
The Steel will face off with Kenai who they swept back on October 4th and 5th at Chippewa Area Ice Arena. In that series, Chippewa never trailed and dominated the series. After a full day of travel to Alaska on Wednesday Chippewa will need to quickly adjust to a new environment and time change. After a hot offensive start over the first 12 games, Chippewa was outscored by Aberdeen 12-2 last weekend. The Steel will be without a number of players due to injury this weekend and this week they have added brother of Ryan Kerchoff, Collin along with Jacob Halvorson and Goalie Tyler Thompson. Goalie Grant Boldt suffered an injury last weekend and will miss action for the foreseeable future.
Scouting Report
Kenai River enters the weekend series coming off a sweep over the Northeast Generals of the East Division. The Brown Bears won a 4-3 overtime contest last Friday and took a 5-3 victory last Saturday evening. Kenai is lead by rookie Theo Thrun with 9 goals and 11 assists. Fellow forwards Zach Krajnik and Logan Ritchie have combined 34 points on the year and will need to be contained for Chippewa to have a successful series. Projected to start in net for the Brown Bears is Landon Pavlisin who has a 8-3 record in goal with a 0.926 save percentage.
Up Next
After the series with Kenai the Steel will head to Fairbanks, Alaska for games against the Fairbanks Icedogs on November 15th & 16th. Chippewa returns to Chippewa Area Ice Arena on Friday, November 29th and 30th. Friday, November 29th is Markquart Motors Night with a postgame skate and player autograph session. Saturday, November 30th all fans will receive a winter hat courtesy of Chippewa Falls Kiwanis Club. All kids 12 and under will also receive free admission courtesy of Chippewa Falls Kiwanis Club. For tickets call 715-861-2131 or visit chippewasteelhockey.com
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The Chippewa Steel are members of the NAHL which is the oldest and largest junior hockey league of its kind in the United States and one of only two USA Hockey-certified leagues that operate under the non-pay-to-play model. The NAHL is also one of the best at advancing players to NCAA and professional hockey. Notable Alumni of the NAHL include Ryan Suter (MIN), Patrick Kane (CHI) and Phil Kessel (ARI) All league games are viewable via HockeyTV. For more information, visit chippewasteelhockey.com.