Moose draw West in first round

PALMER — On Thursday, the Palmer Moose will do something that a Palmer hockey team has not done in 13 years — take the ice during the state tournament.

Palmer will open its first state tourney since 1996 against the West Anchorage Eagles on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at the Curtis C. Menard II Memorial Ice Arena in Wasilla.

Thursday’s appearance in the ASAA First National Cup 4A State Hockey Tournament culminates a tremendous turn-around that has taken years for the Palmer hockey team to complete.

“I’m extremely excited about this season, our seniors, how they turned this program around,” Palmer head coach Brad Hanson said following the North Star Conference tournament on Saturday.

Palmer, the top seed in the North Star Conference heading into the tournament, suffered a 4-3 overtime loss to second-seeded Soldotna in the tourney final.

“ Anytime you lose a game like this it’s agonizing. But fortunately for them, they get to play some more hockey and have another opportunity to show how good they are,” Hanson said.

And now the Moose will have that chance this week facing West Anchorage, the No. 2 team from Anchorage’s Cook Inlet Conference.

Dimond handed West a 3-1 loss during the CIC tourney final on Saturday. West took an early 1-0 lead in the game, but Dimond quickly answered by scoring the first of its three unanswered goals just five seconds later.

West finished the regular season 18-6-1 overall and 10-3-1 in the CIC.

Palmer was the top team in the NSC for most of the regular season, posting a 14-9-0 overall record and 9-1-0 conference mark.

West is actually the only team on the 4A bracket that Palmer has not faced this year. The Moose posted wins over West Valley and Soldotna during the regular season.

Palmer will play either South Anchorage or Lathrop on Friday. Both of those teams edged the Moose during the regular season. Lathrop slipped past Palmer 3-1 in January and South, the three-time defending 4A state champion, needed overtime to edge PHS in December.

Dimond and Chugiak also skated to first round wins over the Moose.

For the complete tournament bracket, see Page B12, and for period-by-period updates from Palmer’s match with West on Thursday, see www.frontiersman.com/sports.

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