Who: Minnesota Wilderness vs. Kenai River Brown Bears
When: March 22-23, 7:30 p.m. AKDT both nights
Where: Soldotna Regional Sports Center, Soldotna, AK
The lead: The Minnesota Wilderness travels to Kenai River aiming to strengthen playoff position.
Media: All of the action can be seen on nahltv.com.
Records: Kenai River – 53 games, 15-32-6, 36 points; Minnesota – 52 games, 27-21-4, 58 points
Midwest Division Standings:
| Place | Team | Points | Games Played | This weekend’s opponent | Clinched playoffs |
| 1 | Wisconsin | 76 | 55 | 2 games vs. Springfield | X |
| 2 | Anchorage | 73 | 52 | 2 games @ Fairbanks | X |
| 3 | Janesville | 66 | 52 | 2 games vs. Chippewa | |
| 4 | Wilderness | 58 | 52 | 2 games @ Kenai River | |
| 5 | Chippewa | 57 | 54 | 2 games @ Janesville | |
| 6 | Fairbanks | 43 | 52 | 2 games vs. Anchorage | |
| 6 | Springfield | 43 | 52 | 2 games @ Wisconsin | |
| 8 | Kenai River | 36 | 53 | 2 games vs. Wilderness |
Last Weekend:
- Kenai River posted three points in a home series vs. Fairbanks. The Brown Bears fell to the Ice Dogs in a shootout on 3/15, 5-4, and bounced back with a 4-1 victory on 3/16.
- The Wilderness split a pair of games in Anchorage. After dropping a 3-2 decision on 3/15, the Wilderness won in a shootout on 3/16, 5-4.
Season series: This weekend will complete the 5-game season series vs. the Brown Bears. Minnesota was victorious in all three of the previous contests: 3-1 in Soldotna on 10/13, followed by 3-0 and 3-2 (OT) scores in Cloquet on Feb. 9-10.
Tale of the tape:
| Team | GF | GA | PP | PK | PIMs |
| Kenai River | 137 | 205 | 18% | 78% | 796 |
| Wilderness | 140 | 147 | 19.4% | 84.8% | 690 |
Source: nahl.com
Beau Knows Making History: Beau Janzig pulled off a rare feat when he secured the Midwest Division’s Bauer Star of the Week honors for his work last weekend. Janzig became only the fifth Wilderness defenseman in team history to win a weekly divisional award. Prior to Janzig, the last Minnesota blueliner to take home a star of the week was Ondrej Trejbal, who won the Central Division award for the week ending March 25, 2018. Other Wilderness defensemen named star of the week are Janis Jaks, Ivan Chukarov and Tobias Bjorklund.
Beau Knows Roadies: Janzig’s 4-point performance at Anchorage marked the second straight road weekend where the Hermantown, MN, native hit the 4-point mark. Janzig recorded one goal and three assists vs. the Wolverines almost exactly one month after he posted two goals and two assists at Springfield. For the season, the 20-year old has played in 47 games, registering four goals and 23 assists for 27 points.
Shootout Guru Goose: By scoring the deciding goal in the shootout last Saturday, Gustavs Ozolins now leads the Wilderness with three shootout goals this season. The defenseman from Riga, Latvia, scored in the third round of the shootout vs. Anchorage, to put the Wilderness up 2-1 in the game-deciding skills competition, and set up goaltender Nick Erickson to make the game-winning save. Ozolins is now 3-for-4 in shootout attempts this season, and has scored in his last two opportunities.
Reyelts Racks First W: Kenai River’s goaltending corps now includes former Proctor High School netminder A.J. Reyelts. Reyelts earned his first victory with the Brown Bears last Saturday, when he stopped 21 of 22 shots in a 4-1 win over the Fairbanks Ice Dogs. In three games with Kenai River, Reyelts is 1-2 with a 3.35 GAA with .894 save percentage. Reyelts is committed to play in the NCAA with Lindenwood University.