The Rewind: Anchorage Wolverines clinch playoff spot; West boys soccer opens title defense with stalemate Also: The weekly scoreboard and a look at the action in the week ahead. The Anchorage Wolverines swarm Aiden Lawson after he scored the game-winning shootout goal against the Fairbanks Ice Dogs during a North American Hockey League game at Sullivan Arena in Anchorage on Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. Welcome back to The Rewind, a weekly digest that puts a spotlight on the biggest stories and best performances from Alaska’s world of sports. Last week featured several notable individual and team performances across the Alaska sports landscape at the high school and professional levels, as well as new developments on the college front. The high school soccer and track and field seasons officially got underway. On the college scene, thehad a couple of programs produce strong individual results. Outside the state, several Alaskans had impressive performances and career achievements worth noting and celebrating in their respective arenas.The Dome was home to the start of the 2026 high school soccer and track and field season this past week. Before the top throwers, runners and jumpers from around the state descended upon it for the Big C Relays, the reigning state soccer champions from the Division I level took the pitch for the first time Thursday night.“You have Cook Inlet Conference champions versus state champions, so that’s the excitement that the people want to see,”“That’s a tough game for the player to get the first time just because there’s not a lot of time to get prepared, training space is limited and you’re not on a surface you normally would be training.” After a scoreless first half, the second wasn’t shaping up to be any different until there was about five minutes left to play. Lynx seniorscored the first goal of the game and after leaving the game briefly with a minor leg injury, nearly had a second but it bounced between the top of the goal and the ground without going behind the Eagles’ goalie.. “He’s a big threat for us and once I think our offense is clicking and going all the way, we’ll be a force to contend with.”“I love that they have the ability to do that, they’ve done it in the past and if we ever get in that situation again, they have the ability to understand that they’ve been in that situation before and they can hopefully get out of it,”had an impressive performance that kept the game from getting out of hand for the Eagles with all the incredibly clutch saves he made.“That was my talk at the end of the game with the boys. When you have a player that’s putting that much effort and heart into keeping that game where it is, you better fight for that brother. You got to have to dig in.”8-0 and the defending state champion Wolverines girls squad capped off the night with a 14-0 blowout of the Golden Bears.gymnastics team produced its second-best team total of the season at 192.375 in the Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics National Invitational Championship team preliminaries Friday. Highlighting the Seawolves’ strong outing were sophomores. “Of course we’re sad that we didn’t advance to Day 2, but overall it was another great meet on par with our second half of the season. The team showed its competitiveness, especially on beam, which can be the hardest event under this much pressure. It was a big improvement from last year’s WCGNIC, including our career highs on vault.”track and field team was back in outdoor action for the second weekend in a row and saw Seawolves win five events at the Pacific Open down in Forest Grove, Oregon, on Saturday. Freshmanon Saturday night at Sullivan Arena. They had three players record a goal and six more players had assists.“I’m so proud of this group and I look back and we were 3-9 to start the season and what we’ve done since then has just been incredible,”“We’ve caught fire here at the right time of the year and I think a lot of it is just guys learning lessons and playing the game the right way. Our locker room has a really good feel to it right now.” Even though he allowed a late goal in a 6-on-4 penalty kill situation with the victory pretty much wrapped up, starting goaliehad a phenomenal performance between the pipes for Anchorage, making 17 saves on 18 shots. “I thought guys played pretty good in front of him and we didn’t give up too many quality shots but when we did, he made some really good saves,”“He’s just a reliable and steady influence back there that provides a lot of confidence in the rest of the team knowing that they don’t have to be perfect because if they make a mistake, Kai’s going to be there to back them up.”got into with just over seven minutes left in the second period. It was one of the rare instances where the officials allowed two players to circle up with their gloves off and duke it out until they hit the ice andAikens said. “He goes out and gets the job done and he answered the bell. That guy wanted to fight him and that was something that carried over from some previous games and it was nice to see him do well in that. It certainly energized the building and the bench as well.”Boston Bruins' Jeremy Swayman makes a save against the Columbus Blue Jackets during the first period of an NHL hockey game, Sunday, March 29, 2026, in Columbus, Ohio. bounced back from a loss earlier last week by picking up his 29th and 30th wins as the starting goaltender for thenearly repeated the feat Saturday in a narrow 120-118 loss to the same team by leading the team with 33 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists.men’s hockey team to a pair of victories over the weekend in the NCAA tournament to advance to the Frozen Four semifinals for the fourth time in the last five years as the head coach of the elite program. With him as the bench boss, the Pioneers easily dispatchedmen’s hockey team reach the Frozen Four semifinals with a pair of victories this past week in the NCAA regionals. After not recording a point in the Fighting Hawks 3-0 shutout ofbut will take the ice in the first game of night with a puck drop time of 4 p.m.women’s basketball team were dashed this past week. The Mavericks had their 34-game winning streak snapped Thursday in a 75-70 loss tostar and Gatorade Player of the Year didn’t have much of an impact in that game with just two points and an assist in 20 minutes, she had a solid game two days before in an 81-59 win overon Tuesday in which she led the team with four assists and also finished with five points, five rebounds and a steal.star and two-time Gatorade Player of the Year tied his second highest putout total behind the plate with 13. He went 1 for 4 with an RBI single that increased the Sun Devils’ lead to 6-1 in the bottom of the first inning. He later came around for his 10th run of the season.softball team in nearly three weeks and recorded three RBIs on two hits and scored a run during a four-game series againsttrack and field team by earning a second place finish overall out of 10 competitors in the men’s high jump. The formerbaseball team with seven stolen bases as part of 11 total steals in the first game of a doubleheader againstran wild on Saturday, swiping 20 bags to sweep Mayville State on day one of the Frontier Conference weekend seriesnearly claimed the USA Hockey Tier II 14U boys 2A division national championship Sunday morning but fell 5-4 in overtime to the New Hampshire Avalanche in Plano, Texas. in last year’s finals when they square off against the Eagles, who they swept last season and outscored by 11-0 in the two matches combined.All eight schools in the Anchorage School District will compete this weekend with throws starting the action early in the morning.The Wolverines conclude the regular season with back-to-back games against the Brown Bears to close out a three-game weekend series that will begin in Soldotna on Friday.3. Reilly Sue Baker 15′ 7″, Homer2. Chris Jones 5′ 2″, Grace ChristianJosh Reed is a sports reporter for the Anchorage Daily News. 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