Grounded

WASILLA — The Wasilla Warriors aren’t big into Cinderella stories.

The Warriors overcame a surprising two-goal first period deficit to surge past a short-handed Houston Hawks team 8-5 Wednesday night at the Curtis C. Menard Memorial Ice Arena.

With quick first-period goals from Chancie Hanson and Jesse Gittlein it looked as if Wasilla was going to cruise past its valley rival. But the Hawks, who have played all season short on numbers, quickly fought back.

Cody Lipse put the Hawks on the board midway through the first period with a goal in traffic from the slot. Then Cody Connor tied the game with about five minutes left in the first with a bouncing slap shot from the blue line.

The Hawks weren’t satisfied with being tied, as Lane Styers and Kenn Doss both added goals in the dying minutes of the first to put the Hawks up 4-2 entering the second.

Wasilla head coach Bill Studervant said the play of his team in the first period was a result of taking the Hawks team too lightly.

“We weren’t happy with the way we played in the first,” Studervant said. “But hats off to them, they played really well.”

The Hawks were aware that the general consensus before the game was calling for a Wasilla blowout, Houston head coach Mike Styers said.

“Everybody was in there thinking that we were going to get blown out,” Styers said. “I think their players were thinking that too. They didn’t seem quite ready.”

Whatever Wasilla did wrong in the first period, the Warriors changed in the second.

Following a Jade Johnston goal to start the second period, senior Trent Wohlers took the puck from behind his own net, skated all the way down the ice before ripping a wrist shot from the top of the circle that sailed past Houston goalie Ben Barenburg’s right shoulder.

The Warriors would score two more second-period goals to go up 6-4 entering the third, calming the upset talk.

Wasilla would take that two-goal lead to the closing minutes of the third period. And just when it looked like the Warriors had the game locked up, a series of penalties gave Houston a long 5-on-3 power play.

Houston would capitalize on the power play as Connor scored his second goal of the game, off a shot from the point, to bring Houston within one with 2:39 left to play in the game.

“We have to be more disciplined,” Studervant said of the penalty-plagued Warriors. “We can’t be trading goals while we’re on the penalty kill. If we keep that up all season it’s going to bite us in the end of the year.”

Wohlers did his best to make up for his penalty. Fresh out of the box, Wohlers took a pass from defenseman Michael Johnston and beat Barenburg with 1:42 left in the game.

“That goal put the icing on the cake,” Wohlers said. “It showed that, yeah, it was a close game, but we are still the dominant team.”

Wasilla would add an eighth goal in the last seconds from Rell Studervant to close out the scoring.

The Hawks moved to 0-6 on the season, although Styers said he was proud of the way his team hung with the Warriors.

“We played well, we just came up there a little short in the end,” Styers said.

Wasilla improved to 3-3 on the season.

Both teams have the Thanksgiving weekend off. The Hawks return to the ice Dec. 8 against the Palmer Moose, while the Warriors travel to Soldotna to take on the starts next Thursday.