Knights flush in 3-game homestand

WASILLA — Heading in to a three-game homestand against a trio of North Star Conference rivals from the Kenai Peninsula, the Colony Knights set a goal to end the weekend with a pair of wins. But after a pair of one-goal games and a tie, the Knights aren’t exactly dissatisfied with their 1-1-1 weekend mark.

“It’s great for us,” Colony head coach Jamie Smith said of the weekend. “Our goal was two out of three, but to get the tie out of the Soldotna game, that’s big for us. We can see the improvement.”

Colony — which skated to a 3-3 tie with Soldotna on Thursday and suffered a 3-2 loss to Kenai on Friday — posted the 1-0 win over the Homer Mariners at the Curtis C. Menard II Memorial Ice Arena on Saturday afternoon.

“We’re seeing progression,” Smith said of a Colony squad made up predominately by athletes new to the varsity level.

Trevor Naylor scored late in the second period to help give the Knights the win over Homer. Naylor, working hard on the forecheck, was able to get a stick on the puck to create an opportunity for himself. Naylor cashed in on the chance to give the Knights the lead.

Colony was only able to net one goal, despite outshooting the Mariners 38-18.

“We were a little snakebit,” Smith said. “We couldn’t put pucks away.”

Alex Sanarov stood strong in net, stopping 37 shots for Homer.

There was a similar theme for the Knights on Friday. Colony outshot Kenai 37-24, but the Kards were able to skate away with the win.

Kenai had to withstand a late Colony push to score the victory. The Kards skated into the final minutes of regulation with a 3-1 lead. But with the Colony goalie pulled and the Knights skating with the extra attacker, Colony sophomore Donovan Parker scored with just less than two minutes to go to cut Kenai’s lead to 2-1.

Colony pulled the goal again during the final minute, and had five shots on goal — two that hit the crossbar — but were unable to post the game-tying score.

Jonathon Boyer scored for Colony midway through the second to put the Knights on the scoreboard and snap a scoreless tie.

Dylan Hendricks scored a pair of goals to lead the Kards. Hendricks tied the score in the second and scored again in the third to give Kenai the 2-1 lead. Steven Harding added a goal later in the period to extend the lead.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/matsu_sports.