Colony falls at opening of Houston tournament

BIG LAKE — With the opening of the Big Lake Lions Recreation and Community Center, Houston has a new slab of ice to call home. And with that new home-ice advantage comes the opportunity to host the Houston Hockey Tournament, which began Thursday and continues today and Saturday.

Joining the Hawks at the Big Lake center this weekend is another Valley squad, the Colony Knights, who kicked off the tournament with a 4-2 loss to North Pole Thursday.

Although the Patriots finished on the top end of the final tally, the scoresheet paints a picture of an aggressive Colony offense, head coach Jamie Smith said. In fact, the Knights out-shot North Pole 52-20 in the game, including 20-2 in the first period alone. But despite that advantage, the Patriots made their two shots count and led 2-0 at the end of the first.

“They had two shots and two goals,” Smith said. “It was just incredible the circumstances.”

Smith said the Knights are a young team this season, and that youth may have shown in Thursday’s game.

“I think the biggest thing is being young up front,” he said. “Strength-wise, when you’re talking freshmen and sophomores, that extra miles per hour on the puck you get (when more mature) makes the difference. This was a tough one. We’ve given away a couple of games this year. I think we’ve out-shot every team we’ve played, except Wasilla.”

Trailing 2-0 in the second period, Jacob Link put the Knights on the board, assisted by Colton Symbol. Then in the third trailing 3-1, Curtis Foster scored on a power play goal, assisted by Gunner Stadem, to cut the lead to a point. With Colony pressing at the end of regulation, a turnover in their zone led to an empty-netter with two seconds left.

The Knights will try to rebound tonight with a conference game against Homer.

Houston vs. Homer

The Hawks hosted Homer in the late game Thursday.

Scores and information from that game were not available by deadline Thursday evening.

Chugiak 8, Palmer 3

Palmer played Chugiak to a 3-3 tie final 25 minutes of play, but unfortunately for the Moose it wasn’t enough to overcome spotting Chugiak five goals in the first 20 minutes in an 8-3 road loss Thursday evening.

The Mustangs led 3-0 after the first period, and tallied the first two goals of the second before Hayden Shults got the Moose on the scoreboard at the 8:56 mark, assisted by Darren Fish, cutting the lead to 5-1 going into the final period.

But the Mustangs continued their offensive pressure, scoring less than 40 seconds into the third. About 25 seconds later, Cody Farwell got the goal back for Palmer, and the Moose cut the lead again to 6-2. But Chugiak found the back of the net twice more to ice the game.

Houston Hockey Tournament

Big Lake Lions Recreation and Community Center

Thursday games

North Pole 4, Colony 2

Homer Houston

Friday games

5 p.m., Homer vs. Colony

7:30 p.m., Houston vs. North Pole

Saturday games

2:30 p.m., North Pole vs. Homer

5:30 p.m., Houston vs. Colony