DENIED

WASILLA — The Houston Hawks have had some success coming from behind this year. But on Thursday, the Hawks fell short.

Houston scored three times in the second period, but it wasn’t enough to overcome an early deficit, and Juneau-Douglas held on for a 4-3 win over the Hawks at the Curtis C. Menard II Memorial Ice Arena.

“Against a team not as talented as (Juneau-Douglas) you can come back a little bit,” Houston head coach Mike Styers said. “But when you get yourself down like that, it’s just too hard (to come back).”

Juneau grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first and pushed its advantage to 3-1 in the second as the Crimson Bears swept a key Mid-Alaska Conference series. Juneau also used an early lead to beat Houston 4-1 at the Menard on Wednesday.

Styers said he felt, overall, his team outplayed Juneau. The Hawks outshot the Bears 34-31 in the game, and 18-9 in the second period. But the first 15 minutes proved to be the difference.

“I thought we played phenomenal in the second period. We didn’t really have the juice in the third. But if we put together another period like the second, we had a good chance of coming back,” Styers said.

Jake Wells scored a pair of second-period goals and Lane Styers added another as the Hawks tried to rally.

Houston cracked the scoreboard early in the third with a Wells breakaway goal. With the Hawks skating shorthanded, Lane Styers took control of the puck in his own defensive zone and sent a long pass to the neutral zone. Wells grabbed the puck, skated past the defense and used a quick move to beat Juneau goalie Colter Pritchard and score.

“We’ve got two or three of those players who are good at looking for the guy, making the open pass and finding the guy,” Styers, Houston’s longtime head coach, said. “That’s kind of what got us back in the game, those good passes.”

Wells scored again at the 3:06 mark for the Hawks. But each time Wells scored, Juneau was able to answer. Less than three minutes after Wells scored shorthanded, Tod Baseden tallied his own shorthanded goal for the Bears.

Less than two minutes after Wells’ second score, Zach Bicknell scored on the power play for JDHS.

Lane Styers cut Juneau’s advantage to one goal late in the third. Styers picked up the puck in the left wing corner, skated through the left wing circle and tuck a shot inside the nearside of the post with 23 seconds left in the third.

Mike Styers said small things separated the two MAC rivals. For example, both of Juneau’s power-play goals came right off the face-offs.

“We have to work on that. Our face-offs weren’t great. We gave them some stuff off the face-off,” Styers said. “Little mistakes like that kept us out of it.”

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiesman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.

Juneau-Douglas 4, Houston 3

Thursday, Menard Arena

First period — 1. Juneau- Woodby (Tomoro) 7:38; 2. Juneau- Halbrook (unassisted) pp 1:29.

Second period — 3. Houston- Wells (Styers) sh 11:27; 4. Juneau- Baseden (Heifet) sh 8:46; 5. Houston- Wells (J. Lovelace, Lipse) 3:06; 6. Juneau- Bicknell (Halbrook, Weston) pp 1:22; 7. Houston- Styers (Z. Lovelace, J. Lovelace) 0:23.

Third period — no scoring.

Shots on goal: Juneau 12-9-10—31, Houston- 11-18-5—34; Saves: Juneau- Pritchard 11-15-5—31, Houston- Allred 10-7-10—27.

Juneau-Douglas 4, Houston 1

Wednesday, Menard Arena

First period — 1. Juneau- Weston (Campbell, Tomoro) 2:58.

Second period — 2. Juneau- Easton (Baseden) 3:21.

Third period — 3. Juneau- Holbrook (unassisted) 9:25; 4. Juneau- Seid (Holbrook) 7:10, 5. Houston- J. Lovelace (Z. Lovelace) 2:19.

Shots on goal: Juneau 12-9-12—33, Houston 14-14-13—41; Saves: Juneau- Pritchard 14-14-12—40, Houston- Allred 11-8-10—29.