Hawks score OT victory

WASILLA — The Houston Hawks are skating into a big stretch of their 2011-12 season.

Next week they host Valley rival Palmer before playing what could be a very important two-game Mid-Alaska Conference series against the Juneau-Douglas Crimson Bears. With that in the near future, Houston head coach Mike Styers knew it was important for his team to play with confidence before heading into that stretch.

A 4-3 overtime victory Friday over Monroe Catholic could have done the trick.

Cody Lipse scored midway through overtime to give the Hawks the win over the Rams at the Curtis C. Menard II Memorial Ice Arena.

Lipse helped give the Hawks one of three victories over the long weekend. Houston beat Glennallen 11-2 on Thursday and Hutchison 10-3 on Saturday.

“This is what we wanted, three wins,” Styers said after the win over Hutchison. “This should give us some confidence.”

Houston trailed Monroe Catholic 3-1 heading into the third period, but was able to score a pair of goals to tie the game and force overtime. The game-tying goal came with only six seconds remaining as the Hawks skated with the extra attacker.

Sophomore Patric Thistle stood strong in front of the net and deflected in the rebound of a Johan Shuey shot to knot the score at 3 with six seconds to go.

“He was down in front battling,” Styers said.

Lipse scored Houston’s first goal of the game. Jon Lovelace also scored for Houston, which outshot the Rams 39-38 in the evenly balanced game.

Lovelace erupted for six goals during the 10-3 win over Hutchinson. Lipse netted the hat trick for the Hawks, and Zach Lovelace also scored.

Houston outshot Hutchison 56-15 in the win.