Knights skate past Moose

WASILLA —Two nights after suffering a tough loss to the Wasilla Warriors, the Colony Knights bounced back with a big win of their own.

Colony used three early goals and three unanswered scores to post a 6-1 North Star Conference win over the Moose Saturday evening at the Menard Sports Center in Wasilla.

The result created a logjam at the top of the North Star standings. The Knights are now locked in a first-place tie with Wasilla, sharing a 6-2-1 mark. Palmer, which skated into Saturday's game in first place, fell to third with the loss and now stands at 6-2-0.

The three Valley teams are fighting for the top 2 seeds in the upcoming North Star Conference tournament. A top 2 seed comes with a first-round bye.

Colony, which dropped a 5-3 decision to Wasilla on Thursday, opened Saturday's contest with three goals in the first six minutes of play. Isaac Vincent opened the scoring for Colony, finding the back of the net at the 13:35 mark of the first. Just more than a minute later Jake Branch scored for CHS. Cooper Smith scored at the 9:07 mark to give Colony the 3-0 advantage.

Colony also ended strong, scoring the game's three final goals. Jake Hessinger and Curtis Foster added second-period goals for Colony. Jacob Link added a tally in the third. THe Foster and Link goals came on the power play.

Colony outshot Palmer 32-14 in the game.

The final week of the regular season will decide the top seeds in the conference tourney. Colony and Palmer meet again Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the MTA Events Center. Wasilla hosts Palmer Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Brett Memorial Ice Arena.

Colony 6, Palmer 1

Saturday, Menard Arena

First period — 1. Colony- Vincent (Link) 13:35; 2. Colony- Branch (Kirsch, Griffith) 12:18; 3. Colony- Smith (Link, Mitchell) 9:07; 4. Palmer- Clements (Foster) pp 4:37.

Second period — 5. Colony- Hessinger (Riekena) 7:47; 6. Colony- Foster (Link, Boyer) pp 6:06.

Third period — 7. Colony- Link (Boyer, Thiele) pp 10:27.

Shots on goal: Palmer 8-1-5--14, Colony 12-9-11--32, Saves: Palmer- Robertson 3-x-x--3, Grogan 6-7-10--23.

Palmer beats Lathrop

PALMER — The Palmer Moose continued their winning streak with a 6-1 non conference victory over the Lathrop Malemutes Friday at the MTA Events Center in Palmer.

Chris Dojka and Valery Dietz each bagged a pair of goals to help extend Palmer's winning streak to six games. Darren Fish and Nathaniel Savel also scored for the Moose.

Palmer outshot Lathrop 28-14 in the game.

Palmer 6, Lathrop 1

Friday, MTA Events Center

First period — 1. Palmer- Dojka (Meyers) 1:06.

Second period — 2. Palmer- Savel (Fish, Meyers) 4:55, 3. Palmer- Dietz (Dojka, Bembenek) 0:32.

Third period — 4. Palmer- Dojka (Meyers, Bembenek) 14:24; 5. Palmer- Fish (Clements) 10:35; 6. Lathrop- Trujillo (Parker, Walker) 6:29; 7. Palmer- Dietz (unassisted) 3:06.

Shots on goal: Lathrop 14, Palmer 28.