Knights skate past Palmer, earn first-round bye in tourney

PALMER — The Colony Knights are now one win away from ending an eight-year draught.

Colony, in search of its first state tournament appearance since 2006, secured a top-2 seed and first-round bye in the upcoming North Star Conference Championships with a 3-0 win over Palmer Friday at the MTA Events Center in Palmer.

Senior goalie Colton Beebe stopped 23 shots to record his fourth conference shutout of the year and help the Knights improve to 7-2-1 in North Star Conference play. Colony clinched at least the No. 2 seed and a first-round bye in the tournament, which starts Feb. 6 in Homer. Palmer dropped to 0-7-1 with the loss. The Moose can still play spoiler. A Palmer win over Wasilla (6-2-1) next Friday would give the Knights the top seed in the region tournament. Regardless, the Knights are excited about finishing among the top 2 teams in the region, realizing a goal Colony had set prior to the season.

“Getting a one or two seed for the first time in a while is definitely nice,” Colony captain Logan Sanders said after the win. “It’s huge. We’ve always struggled in the first round. It’ll be nice to bypass that part and only need one win to make it to state.”

Sanders, Mark Thygeson and Garrett Stadem all scored for the Knights, who skated to a tough 3-3 tie with rival Wasilla Thursday night. Thygeson scored 49 seconds into play to give the Knights the early 1-0 lead. Sanders said considering the tough game the Knights played the night before, it was nice to get the early advantage.

“It was nice not having to come back in the game. We were already exhausted from the night before,” Sanders said.

After the first face off of the game, Thygeson took a pass from Stadem and skated up the right wing. The senior cut back between the circles and slipped a back-hander into the Palmer net.

“That was a great goal, huge start for us,” Sanders said.

Sanders gave the Knights a two-goal lead late in the first period. Stadem added a power-play tally in the third.

Palmer is expected to enter the NSC tournament as the No. 6 seed. Despite its winless region record, Palmer has played North Star teams tough recently. The Moose have two one-goal losses to Soldotna, skated to a tie with Homer and led Kenai in the second period before a Kardinal surge. The Moose put 23 shots on Beebe and forced the Colony netminder to make a number of quality saves.

Colony 3, Palmer 0

Friday, MTA Events Center

First period — 1. Colony- Thygeson (Stadem, Foster) 14:11; 2. Colony- Sanders (Eller, Link) 3:22.

Second period — no scoring.

Third period — 3. Colony- Stadem (Link) pp 7:01.

Shots on goal: Colony 10-12-9—31, Palmer 8-11-4—23; Saves: Colony- Beebe 8-11-4—23, Palmer- Grogan 8-12-8—28.