WASILLA — With 10 seniors on the squad, it’s going to be tough for the Wasilla Warriors to settle for anything less than a North Star Conference championship.

But Wasilla head coach Bill Sturdevant knows when the Warriors (9-1 in NSC play) hit the Homer Ice Arena in the conference tournament this weekend, earning the right to hoist the championship trophy won’t exactly be a breeze.

“Just look at the scores recently,” Sturdevant said on Monday. A look down this list of conference scores from the past month do prove that the NSC is not just a one-horse race, something the conference could have been accused of in a handful of past years.

At the top of the ladder is Wasilla, with it’s one loss in 10 conference tries. Soldotna (8-2-0) stands in second. And then there are the rapidly improving Palmer Moose (7-3-0) and Colony Knights (4-5-0), right above a traditional NSC power, Kenai Central (2-8-0), the defending conference champion.

“We’re expecting tough competition,” Sturdevant said.

Host Homer is the conference’s sixth-seed.

Wasilla skates into the conference tournament after a tough month of January in which the Warriors were tagged with their first NSC defeat of the season — a 4-1 loss to Soldotna — and a pair of difficult nonconference games.

The Warriors faced both of Alaska’s high school hockey defending state championships during a nine-day stretch this month.

On Jan. 16, South Anchorage, the three-time defending 4A state champs, edged Wasilla 2-1 at the Ben Boeke Ice Arena in Anchorage.

On Jan. 25, Wasilla slipped by Houston, the four-time defending 3A state champions, 3-2 in overtime at the Curtis C. Menard II Memorial Ice Arena.

Sturdevant said the difficult win over the Hawks, who now also skate at the 4A level, came at a perfect time.

“It was good for the kids, an eye-opener for them,” Sturdevant said. “We have to be at 100 percent.”

On its first day back after the holiday break, Wasilla suffered the three-goal loss to the Stars, a game in which Soldotna goalie Michael McGrath stole the show with 34 saves. Sturdevant said there are certainly a few ways to look at the loss to a team the Warriors could potentially see in the NSC finals. But at this point, the Warriors want to use that to their advantage.

“Had we won twice against Soldotna, and say the situation comes up where we see them in the championship game at regions, I don’t know if we’d have the same intensity had we taken that loss,” Sturdevant said.

Although the Warriors boast arguably the most depth in the six-team NSC, Wasilla has had to deal with a few injury issues. Sturdevant said the Warriors will have to skate without two of their players — senior defenseman Derek Ostrom and junior forward Tony Miller — for the remainder of the season.

Ostrom suffered a leg fracture against Houston, and Miller aggravated an old wrist injury and may have to have surgery.

The Warriors will look to a junior Travis Koso to help fill the void left by Ostrom. Sturdevant also said freshman Trent Wohlers — a versatile player who can be used at both forward or defenseman — could be moved to the back line if needed. Wohlers currently skates on the team’s top line, and is among Wasilla’s top scorers.

In Miller’s place, Sturdevant said, will be one of two freshman,  Ryder Conroy and Mike Edwards.

Among those who will lead the Warriors into the tournament are senior forwards Adam Friese, Dane Wilson and Joe Barkley; senior defenseman Jordan Elkins; junior blueliner Dylan Troisi and sophomore forward Matthew Friese.

Wasilla has a pair of netminders — junior Jake Dargis and senior Jesse Hugli — who have seen eight or more games in the WHS net.

Wasilla earned a first-round bye, thanks to its 9-1-0 mark, and will face the winner of the Colony-Kenai Central quarterfinal bout on Friday at 5 p.m. in Homer.

Palmer Moose

The Palmer Moose enter the NSC tournament as the third seed, and will face Homer (0-10-0) in the quarterfinals, Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at the Homer Ice Arena.

Palmer is arguably the most improved team in the NSC, with it’s 7-3-0 mark, and is in search of its first state tournament berth since 1996.

For much of the last decade, the Moose have been one-and-done in the single-elimination conference tournament. Last season, Homer skated past Palmer in the quarterfinals.

But even though the Moose still sport a thin roster, the Moose have steadily gained confidence with an assortment of key wins this season.

First-year head coach Brad Hanson, who has led the dramatic turnaround, said several of his team’s accomplishments have led to a boost in confidence.

Palmer swept Kenai, a feat that nobody around the Moose hockey program can remember accomplishing.

Palmer also swept Colony in conference play.

Early in the season, Palmer traveled north to the Interior and beat both West Valley and Lathrop, two programs that annually field tough hockey teams.

And possibly the biggest win of the season, was Palmer’s 4-3 win over Soldotna on Jan. 12.

A win over Homer on Thursday would set up a rematch with the Stars in the semifinals on Friday.

And the Moose believe they are capable of fighting for one of the conference’s two berths to the 4A state tournament.

“We’ve got to play within ourselves,” Hanson said.

Part of the battle is just knowing what it will take for Palmer — a team that skates only two lines and two defensive pairs — to succeed.

“We’re not going to go out and dominate anybody,” Hanson said. “We’re not going to run three lines and run them out of gas. We’re the team scratching and clawing to the

end.”

Palmer does have a scoring punch. The top Moose line — junior Michael Hanson, junior Zack Richards and senior C.J. Watson —account for a great deal of Palmer’s scoring. But freshman Jared Hanson, the anchor of the second line, also has a boat load of points this season.

Key to the Moose success will be the play of the Palmer back line — defensemen Jeremy Wright, Andrew Ferguson, Jesse Cassidy and Nick Reeves — and sophomore goaltender Jonas Naegele, who has established himself has Palmer’s top man in net this season.

Naegele has stood out in recent week, recording 30 or more saves in wins over Colony and Soldotna.

Colony Knights

Anyone eager to look past Colony, should refer back to the first round of the NSC tournament last season. Despite finishing winless during the regular season, the Knights took Soldotna to double overtime before falling to the Stars.

This year, the Knights are far from winless and hoping to do some damage in the three-day tournament.

Colony’s first obstacle in its search for a spot in the state tourney for the first time since 2006 is Kenai. Although the defending conference champs have battled through a rebuilding year, Colony head coach Dale Mattson is not taking the Kardinals lightly.

“We’ve beat them twice, but they made us earn it both times,” Mattson said.

Colony beat Kenai 3-1 when the conference foes faced in Wasilla in earlier this month.

“It was real even. The shots where within one of each other,” Mattson said. “It was anyone’s game.”

Colony also has a top line — senior Blake Huppert, senior Risto Paatsama and sophomore Lance Nezaticky — that can do damage at any time.

Leading that line is Huppert, who with 61 points is four shy of breaking the single-season school scoring record. Former Knight standout Seth Reda holds the record with 64.

Another top senior for Colony is defenseman Chris Breck, who Mattson calls a “pillar” on the back line.

Mattson has a very young team, with several sophomores — such as defensemen Jesse Krey and Braden Carter and goalie Charlie Holman — who could make an impact.

With a win over Kenai, Colony would face Wasilla in the semifinals at 5 p.m. on F

riday.

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.