Knights win Railbelt Conference title

The Colony Knights used a perfect weekend to win a tournament title and cap an undefeated season. But the four teams in the Railbelt Conference Championships had to make a few adjustments along the way.

Colony played twice on Saturday. The Knights skated past West Valley 11-1 and clinched their crown with a 7-3 win over Lathrop later in the day.

“I’m super happy with the guys, being able to do what they did,” Colony head coach Chris Yaskus said by phone. “Especially playing back-to-back games on Saturday and being able to still come out of there with three wins.”

Waslla was forced to withdraw from the tournament after the first day due to possible COVID-19 exposure. The Knights and Warriors were slated to play Friday evening. Both Colony and Wasilla skated to wins on Thursday, the first day of the three-day, four-team round-robin tournament.

“It’s definitely a bummer that one played out the way it did,” Yaskus said.

Six different players scored during the 11-1 win over the Wolfpack, Colony’s first game of the day on Saturday. Kaden Ketchum and Jacob Ross each notched the hat trick in the win. Aidan Finch added two goals. Kai Dixon, Carsen Lantto and Peyton VanBuskirk also scored. VanBuskirk led Colony with four assists. Colony outshot West Valley 38-14. Colony’s Malachi Mukaabya made 13 saves in the win.

Colony followed with the 7-3 victory over the Malemutes. VanBuskirk and Lantto scored two goals each. Ross, Ketchum and Finch also scored. Carson McLaughlin led Colony with four assists.

Colony outshot Lathrop 33-19. Mukaabya made 16 saves in the win.

“We had not played Lathrop yet. We kind of knew what to expect, but we knew we were going to be tired,” Yaskus said. “To walk away with three wins was awesome.

Colony also beat West Valley on Thursday.

Yaskus praised the depth and talent on this team.

“Definitely a deep group for us. I’ve been with Colony for three years and it’s definitely the strongest depth-wise that we’ve had,” Yaskus said. “We should hopefully retain most of that. We’ve got three, four kids we expect to lose next year. But we have a really strong freshman, sophomore, junior group this year and we plan to retain most of those going into next season.”

Before the tournament, Colony and Wasilla had only played teams within the district, rivals Palmer and Houston. The Moose and Hawks were able to compete in the ASAA Division II state tournament in February. ASAA was forced to cancel the Division I state tournament after the Anchorage School District scheduled its prep hockey season from March through May. The only Division I programs outside of the ASD are the four programs in the Railbelt,

“We were definitely excited to see a tournament in general,” Yaskus said.

Colony finished its season a perfect 11-0-0.

“The kids had a really good season this year,” Yaskus said. “We knew we were going to be strong. It’s unfortunate that we weren’t able to play any schools outside of the district up until regions.”

Yaskus said the Knights are thankful they had a season.

“We weren’t really sure at the beginning of the year if we were going to have a season,” Yaskus said. “A ton of work by our school admin, by the school district to make everything happen for us. We’re just grateful to even have a season.”

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