Malemutes muzzle Moose at Menard tourney

WASILLA — The Palmer Moose scored three times in the second, but couldn’t duplicate the success in the third and suffered a 5-3 loss to the Lathrop Malemutes during the semifinal round of the Curtis C. Menard II Memorial Hockey Tournament at the Menard Arena on Friday.

Lathrop struck early during the win. Exactly one minute into the game, the Moose turned over the puck at their own blue line and Lathrop’s Robert Trujillo scored a breakaway goal to immediately force the Moose to play from behind.

“We’ve got speed, and anytime you can move your feet that fast on the ice it’s going to create scoring opportunities” said Lathrop head coach Shawn Lundgren after the win.

The Moose struggled mightily for the entire first period. Even when a Lathrop penalty gave the moose an excellent opportunity to score on a power play, the Lathop goalie has an easy job, only having to defend 7 shots all period.

The second period was dramatically different. The Moose came out firing on all cylinders. Dalton Bunness, Nick Reeves and Miles George all scored in the period, with another two breakaways. Junior captain Ivan Good missed adding to the Palmer dominance by inches when his breakaway shot caromed off the left post.

Senior Captain Nick Reeves accumulated two penalties in the second period alone, taking his leadership and defense off the ice.

The Malemutes were certainly not going away quietly, though. Lathrop made Palmer Freshman goalie Ashton Good work hard for his saves. Lathrop equaled Palmer’s shot totals in the 2nd period, the difference was that Palmer’s shots found the net. Late in the 2nd period, Lathrop tied the game. Forcing Ashton Good to slide across the crease, he was obstructed by his own defensemen and could not cover the right side of the net, allowing a Lathrop goal from Trujillo, and what would end the Palmer dominance for the rest of the game.

Lathrop would rebound in the third period.

“We’ve got a young team, it was just a matter of getting back into the locker room and regrouping. We knew we had to be the hardest working team in the third period to win,” Lundgren said.

As the game became more and more even, it also became more and more physical. Though penalties were not unusually, big hits were certainly a staple. Lundgren was not pleased with the physicality of the game.

“Palmer’s a lot bigger. We’ve got a young group and they did a great job doing what they needed to do to keep us from our game plan.”

Lathrop’s Jacob Wolter scored a breakaway off a Moose turnover. His original shot bounced hard off Ashton Good’s pads, resulting in multiple rebound opportunities. He eventually put the go ahead goal past Good.

The Moose went to working hard at scoring again to try to force overtime, but an empty net goal dashed their hopes. The game’s physicality reached illegal levels near the end of the game, with Palmer’s mounting frustration.

Tim Rockey is a senior at Palmer High School who also writes for the Frontiersman’s Sports section.