Houston heads north; Colony, Wasilla, Palmer south for conference tournaments

WASILLA — Four local prep hockey teams hit the road this week in search of a conference titles and state tournament berths.

Palmer, Colony and Wasilla skate south to compete in the North Star Conference Championships, which start Thursday at the Soldotna Sports Center. Houston heads north to play in the Greatland Conference Championships in the Interior.

Palmer (9-0-1 in North Star play), Colony (7-2-1) and Wasilla (6-4-0) own the top three seeds in the six-team tournament. With their top-2 seeds, Palmer and Colony earned first-round byes.

Soldotna (4-6-0), Homer (2-8-0) and Kenai (1-9-0) round out the conference standings. During first-round action Thursday, Soldotna hosts Homer at 2 p.m. and Wasilla plays Kenai at 4:45 p.m.

In the semifinals Friday, second-seeded Colony faces the Wasilla-Kenai winner at 5 p.m., and top-seed Palmer will play the Soldotna-Homer winner at 7:30 p.m. Winners of the semifinal games earn the conference’s two state tournament bids, and will meet in the finals Saturday at 4:15 p.m.

Houston is the No. 3 seed in the Greatland tournament, which starts Thursday in Fairbanks. Monroe and Delta are the top two seeds in the tournament. Like the North Star, the top two seeds from the Greatland earn first-round byes. Hutchison, Copper River and Tri Valley are seeded fourth, fifth and sixth respectively.

With a win over Tri Valley, Houston would move forward to play second-seeded Delta Thursday at 8 p.m. at the Polar Ice Arena in North Pole. In the other late game Thursday, top-seeded Monroe meets The Hutchison-Copper River winner at 7 p.m. at the Carlson Center.

The winners of the late games Thursday play in the conference championship game Friday at 7:45 p.m. at the Big Dipper Arena. The winner of that game earns the Greatland’s first state tournament bid.

The second bid is awarded to the team that comes back through the loser’s bracket. The second-place game is Saturday at 6:45 p.m. at the Big Dipper.