Knights win, prepare for rivals

WASILLA — This is a big week for the Colony Knights.

The Knights, locked right in the middle of a pack of teams in the North Star Conference standings, face their biggest rivals on back-to-back nights.

With games against Palmer tonight and Wasilla Saturday, Colony was looking to build a bit of momentum during a mid-week meeting with Houston. Morgan McJimsey scored a pair of goals and Jonathon Boyer recorded two assists to lead the Knights to a 4-3 nonconference win over Houston Wednesday at the Menard Arena in Wasilla.

“This is huge,” Colony head coach Jamie Smith said of the upcoming games, the final games of the regular season.

Depending on what happens this weekend — Soldotna, Homer and Kenai are also in action on the Peninsula — Colony could realistically finish anywhere from second through fourth. Wasilla has locked up the top seed with its 8-0 record in NSC play. But that’s the only lock in the team standings, with two nights left in the regular season. Soldotna, for at least the moment, sits in second place with a 3-2-4 mark and 10 points in the standings.

The Stars skated to a scoreless tie with Homer on Tuesday, its third straight scoreless tie this season. Soldotna also played to a scoreless tie conference games against Palmer and Colony earlier this month. Wasilla and the No. 2 seed in the conference both earn a crucial first-round bye.

Colony and Homer are currently tied for third with eight points. Colony (3-3-2) has two chances to add to its points in the team standings. Homer (3-4-2) closes its regular season Saturday at Kenai.

Kenai (2-5-1) and Palmer (1-7-1) are currently fifth and sixth respectively.

Smith said he likes that his squad is facing its top rivals on the final two nights of the regular season.

“We usually step up (against them),” Smith said. “I want to go into that tournament playing the best we can play.”

The NSC Championships begin Thursday at the Menard Arena in Wasilla.

With the parity in the league, Smith said it could come down to which squad is the hottest team heading into the three-day event. He also said it might even come down to one position.

“I think it’s the hottest goalie,” Smith said. “There are some good goalies in this conference.”

The top goaltender from every school in the conference (Wasilla’s Lauren Massie, Palmer’s Ashton Good, Colony’s Colton Beebe, Kenai’s Justin Alvey, Soldotna’s Cody Harvey and Homer’s Alex Saranov) have all recorded at least one shutout in conference action this year.

Wednesday, Colony scored a pair of first-period goals and two more in the second to get past Houston 4-3.

“We came out pretty strong right off the bat. We did some pretty good things, but we let them back in the game,” Smith said. “Then they got confidence.”

McJimsey and Cole Bloemer each scored within a span of 1 minute, 26 seconds early in the first period to give the Knights the early advantage. Houston’s Jonathon Lovelace scored midway through period to cut Colony’s lead in half.

Houston tied the score early in the second. Lane Styers tied the score early in the second, with help from a great individual effort from teammate Cody Lipse.

Lipse drove up the right wing put a shot on goal, got his own rebound and threw another shot on net. After Beebe made another save, the puck slid toward the right wing circle. Styers picked up the loose puck and snapped a wrist shot into the upper shelf of the net.

Defenseman Tim Baleteskiy added a goal in the third period for Houston.

The teams combined for 68 shots in the game. Colony outshot the Hawks 41-27, and 20-11 in the third period.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com and find him by searching Valley Sports Huddle on Facebook.

Colony 4, Houston 3

Wednesday, Menard Arena

First period — 1. Colony- McJimsey (unassisted) 10:37; 2. Colony- Bloemer (unassisted) 9:11; 3. Houston- Lovelace (Natekin) 7:51.

Second period — 4. Houston- Styers (Lipse, Lovelace) 12:41; 5. Colony- McJimsey (Boyer, Foster) 11:58; 6. Colony- Kolendo (Boyer) 4:37.

Third period — 7. Houston- Baletskiy (unassisted) 2:13.

Shots on goal: Houston 5-11-11—27, Colony- 9-13-20—42; Saves: Houston- Allred 2-0-0—2, Jones 5-11-20—36; Colony- Beebe 4-10-10—24.