Avalanche buries first day of NSC tourney

WASILLA — An avalanche buried the first day of the North Star Conference hockey tournament.

The Seward Highway was closed near the Sterling Highway intersection after an early-morning avalanche Thursday, closing travel on the road in both directions. According to a press release issued by the Alaska Department of Transportation, the slide — estimated from 3 to 10 feet deep and 100 feet wide — hit about 7 a.m., and the road was closed at Mile 37 of the Seward Highway, at the “Y” intersection with the Sterling Highway until about 3 Thursday afternoon.

With the road closed, the Colony, Palmer and Wasilla hockey squads were not able to continue with their scheduled bus trips to the Kenai Peninsula and travel to the tourney, which was slated to start Thursday at 5 p.m. at the Soldotna Sports Center in Soldotna.

Once it was learned the Valley teams were stuck, tournament officials compressed the three-day event into a two-day tourney. First-round action is now planned for Friday night, with the semifinals and championship game of the single-elimination tourney slated for Saturday.

“After visiting with representatives from each school and the board of control, we have collectively decided to run the tournament over a two-day period,” Soldotna activities director Galen Brantley Jr. said in an email.

Colony head coach Jamie Smith said he got the call as he and Palmer head coach Brad Hanson were about to board a flight to the Kenai Peninsula so he could attend the tournament’s coaches meeting.

“Me and Brad were both getting on the airplane, and we both got the call,” Smith said. “(Our team) was supposed to leave at 8:30 a.m.”

The new schedule has Colony meeting Homer Friday at 5 p.m. and Wasilla playing Kenai Friday at 7 p.m. The semifinals are slated for 9:15 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. on Saturday, with the championship game at 7:30 p.m.

Smith said there shouldn’t be any concern about the new format.

“In youth hockey we do that every tournament, we play a couple of games every day,” Smith said.

Valley teams are scheduled to leave early Friday morning.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com and follow him at twitter.com/matsu_sports.