HEAVENLY VICTORY

PALMER — The Palmer Moose racked up a hard-fought 3-2 win Saturday over the Stars of Soldotna High School.

“Soldotna’s a great team,” Palmer Head Coach Brad Hanson said. “It was fun to win.”

Palmer wasted no time in drawing first blood on breakaway less than 30 seconds into the first period. Palmer sophomore Jared Hanson took credit for the goal, which whizzed past SoHi goalie Dawson Pearson. Palmer’s Ivan Good had the assist.

The Stars took more than 10 minutes to return the favor, and with 3:08 left to go in the first, the Stars sailed a shot just past Palmer goalie Will Rauchenstein’s glove. Kevin Garske took credit for the score with Daniel Markstrom assisting.

Rauchenstein stood up to a subsequent Stars attempt, taking the shot in his belly and the score stood at 1-1 when the period ended.

SoHi picked up the next goal just over two minutes into the second period, batting the puck around in Wasilla territory before finally dumping it in from Rauchenstein’s left. Defenseman Alex Stone took credit for the goal with the assist going to forward Brad Duwe.

With 7:29 left on the clock, Palmer’s Kyle Blakeman took off on another breakaway into SoHi territory, but Pearson held his net, taking the shot in his chest.

The Moose didn’t let the period end without evening the score, however. Just as the clock ran out, Hanson snatched a SoHi pass out of the air, dropped the puck and launched it into the top corner of the net.

In the fifth minute of the third period Palmer picked up what would be the winning goal. The Moose spent almost a minute in Stars country before Blakeman managed to bully in a shot with help from Good.

With 9:01 left, Rauchenstein stopped a slap shot from the blue line with his chest.

SoHi fought hard to even the tally, but the Moose wouldn’t lay down. With 2:26 to go in the final period, Palmer’s Michael Hanson was sent to the box for two minutes and Soldotna pulled it’s goalie.

Two men down, the Moose fought the Stars tooth and nail and managed to hold the Stars’ 5-3 advantage.

Soldotna put its goalie back in for a face-off at their end. When Hanson was done serving his time, though, Pearson was back to the bench, putting SoHi on the advantage yet again.

Rauchenstein stopped the final SoHi attempt of the game, putting his glove on the puck. The final 20 seconds saw three face-offs.

Coach Hanson said after the tough win he was impressed with his team for standing up to SoHi’s late power plays.

“That was real rough,” he said.