After suffering its first loss in 2026 last weekend, the Minnesota Wilderness seek to bounce back in the final weekend of its final Alaska jaunt of the 2025-26 season. Minnesota meets the Kenai River Brown Bears in a 2-game series Jan. 30-31 at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex in Soldotna, AK.
The Wilderness dropped their final contest of their 3-game set at Fairbanks last Saturday (Jan. 24), 5-4, in overtime. This followed 6-3 and 4-1 victories in the first two matchups. Minnesota finished the series with its season-long point streak extended to 11 games (10-0-1).
The Brown Bears enter this series vs. Minnesota having won its last two games. Kenai swept the Anchorage Wolverines at home last weekend 4-3 in game 1, and 3-2 in overtime in game 2.
Minnesota (28-7-3) and Kenai River (13-24-1) have met four times thus far this season, with the Wilderness triumphant in all four meetings. The squads first met on the Kenai Peninsula on Oct. 3-4, with Minnesota coming out on top 6-4 and 5-2. They then tangled in a 2-game series in Cloquet on Jan. 2-3, which resulted in Wilderness victories of 5-1 and 6-3.
The final series between the Wilderness and Brown Bears will be Feb. 20-21 in Cloquet.
Game times for both contests this weekend will be 7:30 p.m. AKST.
Media: All games can be seen on NAHLTV.com
Midwest Division standings
| Place | Team | Games Played | Points | This week’s opponent (all games Fri./Sat. unless otherwise noted) |
| 1 | Wilderness | 38 | 59 | 2 @ Kenai River |
| 2 | Fairbanks | 39 | 49 | 2 @ Anchorage |
| 3 | Wisconsin | 39 | 47 | 2 @ Chippewa |
| 4 | Springfield | 39 | 47 | 2 vs. Janesville |
| 5 | Anchorage | 37 | 41 | 2 vs. Fairbanks |
| 6 | Janesville | 40 | 37 | 2 @ Springfield |
| 7 | Kenai River | 38 | 27 | 2 vs. Wilderness |
| 8 | Chippewa | 38 | 16 | 2 vs. Wisconsin |
Tale of the Tape:
| Team | GF | GA | PP | PK |
| Wilderness | 174 | 96 | 32 for 144 (22.2%) | 28 for 144 (80.6%) |
| Kenai River | 115 | 158 | 10 for 106 (9.4%) | 32 for 140 (77.1%) |