Knights fly past Hawks

WASILLA — Last week, despite outshooting Bartlett 55-13, the Colony Knights could only muster a pair of goals during a 5-2 loss to the Golden Bears. On Tuesday, Colony sent seven of its 32 attempts into the net.

The difference?

The Knights didn’t settle for just one shot on a rush.

Colony knocked in a handful of goals off rebounds and scored a 7-1 nonconfernece win over the Houston Hawks at the Curtis C. Menard II Memorial Ice Arena in Wasilla.

“We’ve been working on guys getting to the net,” Colony head coach Jamie Smith said. “We don’t get many greasy goals. Like that Bartlett game, I said, ‘Guys, we had 55 shots on net and probably five rebounds. If we would have had more rebounds, we would have had more goals.’”

Sophomore Morgan McJimsey netted the hat trick for the Knights and added an assist. Junior Trevor Naylor collected two goals and three assists.

Naylor and McJimsey teamed up twice during an eight-second span and helped the Knights build a 3-0 lead by the six-minute mark of the first period.

At the 8:31 mark of the first, Naylor knocked his own rebound past Houston goalie Ben Barenburg to give the Knights the 1-0 lead. Naylor won the ensuring draw at center ice, raced to net and put another quick shot on goal. This time, McJimsey tapped in the rebound goal to give the Knights their second goal in eight seconds. Two minutes later, Naylor sent a sharp pass across the zone to freshman Anthony Koldendo, who one-timed a goal from the right side of the crease.

“The guys were going to the net hard tonight,” Smith said.

The early lead helped wear down a shorthanded Hawks squad, which included only 11 skaters and a goalie Tuesday night.

“Obviously, we’re going to try to get out there and wear them out,” Smith said.

McJimsey scored his second goal midway through the second period. The sophomore took a Gabriel Gamez pass at the left wing circle, and sent a quick wrister into the low, far side of the net. McJimsey completed his hat trick with a rebound goal late in regulation.

Midway through the third, Quinn Nardini scored for the Knights on a goal set up by Sam Lund.

Houston outshot Colony 34-32 in the loss, but Knights senior Jason Murak came through with 33 saves in the win.

“He did a good job keeping everything in the center of his body,” Smith said.

Freshman Jon Lovelace slipped the lone puck by Murak, scoring on the power play two minutes into the third period.

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

Colony 7, Houston 1

Tuesday, Menard Arena

First period — 1. Colony- Naylor (McJimsey) 8:31; 2. Colony- McJimsey (Naylor) 8:23; 3. Colony- Kolendo (Naylor, Murak) 6:01.

Second period — 4. Colony- McJimsey (Gamez, Tobin) 5:31.

Third period — 5. Houston- J. Lovelace (Z. Lovelace, Styers) pp 13:00; 6. Colony- Naylor (Hartley) ea 8:18; 7. Colony- Q. Nardini (Lund, Tobin) 6:09; 8. Colony- McJimsey (Naylor, Hartley) 2:53.

Shots on goal: Colony 15-8-9—32, Houston 15-7-12—34; Colony- Murak 15-7-11—33, Houston- Barenburg 12-7-6—25.