Knights top rival Wasilla in DI hockey fourth-place game

WASILLA — The Wasilla Warriors swept Colony in a pair of regular-season meetings, but it was the Knights who came through in the end.

Colony capped its 2018-19 season with a 3-1 win over rival Wasilla in the ASAA First National Cup Division I state hockey tournament fourth-place game Saturday afternoon at the Menard Arena in Wasilla.

Colony netminder Roman Shepard used another stellar effort to help the sixth-seeded Knights finish fourth in the bracket. Friday, Shepard made 43 saves as Colony kept its season alive with a 4-1 win over West Anchorage in the consolation semifinals. On Saturday, Shepard stopped 29 shots. He also came through with a save on a Wasilla penalty shot with 5:51 left in the first.

Colony also scored a pair of unanswered goals in the victory. A Wasilla turnover in its own zone led to the eventual game-winner. Dane Jellich tucked a shot inside the post to give the Knights a 2-1 lead with 10:36 left in the third. Kaden Ketchum added a late empty-netter to ice the game.

Colony took a lead in the second period. Jack Holman knocked in the rebound of a Mitchell Diltz shot with the rivals skating 4-on-4.

Wasilla’s Aiden Goff tied the game at 1 with 2:44 left in the second. Langstan Bouma sent in a shot from the top of the left wing circle, and Goff smacked in a long rebound from the right to tie the score.

Holman and Wasilla’s Dylan Harbour were named all-tournament.

The Warriors and Knights both rebounded on Friday to move into the fourth-place match. Wasilla scored a big win over rival Palmer, and Colony skated past West Anchorage.

Harbour used a hat trick to lead Wasilla to a 7-1 win over Palmer in the first consolation semifinal of the day. Bouma scored 36 seconds into play to give the Warriors a quick lead. Harbour’s first goal pushed Wasilla’s lead to 2-0 at the 8:19 mark of the first.

McKinley Larson, Zach Roush and Aiden Goff also scored for Wasilla. Larson’s goal came on the power play. Harbour’s third goal of the game was shorthanded.

Alex Nelius scored the lone goal for Palmer.

Wasilla outshot Palmer 42-27. Aaron Campbell made 26 saves in the Wasilla win and Palmer’s TJ O’Rourke stopped 35 shots in the loss.

Four different players scored for Colony to help the Knights beat West and stay alive in the tourney. Two of Colony’s goals came in less than a two-minute stretch of the first. Jellich gave Colony at 1-0 lead at the 6:53 mark fo the first. Nine seconds later, West’s Datchan Matthews found the back of the net to tie the game at 1.

Ketchum provided Colony with the go-ahead goal at the 5:02 mark, and the Knights would never trail.

Ethan Korenta and Carson McLaughlin added goals in the win. Korenta scored on the power play.

Shepard made 43 saves in the win, including all 17 shots he faced in the second period.

Thursday, Eagle River survived a wild third period to score a 5-4 quarterfinal win over Wasilla.

Eagle River grabbed the first two-goal lead for either team with 2:25 left in regulation. But that lasted only 13 seconds. Wolves captain Logan Dudinsky used his third goal of the game to give his squad the 5-3 advantage. But right after the ensuing faceoff, Wasilla’s Troy Randall knocked in a lose puck to pull the Warriors back within a score.

Wasilla pulled Campbell multiple times late in regulation, including once with the faceoff in their own zone with 21 seconds left, but were not able to notch the equalizer.

Wasilla took a quick lead in the game, with Larson poking a puck past Eagle River’s Ryan Gray just 25 seconds into regulation. Eagle River led 2-1 after the first, but Roush tied the game late in the second. Dillon Matson pulled a buck off the back boards, and centered a pass to Roush, who beat Gray.

Eagle River used a similar play and a Sklyer Johnson goal to take a 3-2 lead 38 seconds into the third. Bouma used a power play goal to tie the score at 3.

Dudinsky notched two of his three goals during an eight-minute stretch of the third. Both came on the power play. Dudinsky’s shot from the point factored into four of Eagle River’s five goals in the win. Dudinsky used a big rip from the point to score midway through the first and at the 10:37 and 2:25 marks of the third. Another shot led to a Christian Brooks goal off a rebound in the first period.

Eagle River outshot Wasilla 29-21. Gray made 17 saves in the win, while Campbell stopped 24 shots in the loss.

Wasilla, the fifth seeded, was the highest seeded non-Cook Inlet Conference team in the bracket. Eagle River was seeded fourth.

Service skated to a 6-1 quarterfinal win over the Knights Thursday. Brett Ewing scored a late Colony goal to spoil Service’s shutout bid. Roman Shepard made 21 saves for the Knights, the No. 6 seed in the bracket.

Top-seeded South Anchorage scored a 10-0 win over Palmer, the lone Division II in the Division I bracket, Thursday.

The Wolverines outshot Palmer 46-9 in the victory. Hayden Fox and Ryan Bailey scored two goals each for South. Palmer, the eighth seed, earned its spot in the eight-team bracket by winning the Division II state tournament last weekend.

Contact Frontiersman managing editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.