Moose, Knights to meet for 2nd time in 4 days

WASILLA —Unusual circumstances have added some extra excitement to the final stretch of the North Star Conference regular season.

Typically, Valley rivals meet twice during the regular season, once near the beginning and again near the end. But the first Colony-Palmer bout of the year was postponed until the final week of the season, which set up two Colony-Palmer games during a four-day stretch. The Knights took the first round with a 6-1 victory over the Moose Saturday at the Menard Arena in Wasilla. The teams meet again tonight at 7 p.m. at the MTA Events Center in Palmer.

The games are among four all-Valley bouts during the final 10 days of the regular season. Wasilla beat Colony 5-3 last Thursday, and the Warriors host Palmer Saturday night. To add to the excitement, the three Valley teams are in a scrum at the top of the standings.

“It’s good for Valley hockey,” Colony head coach Jamie Smith said of the Valley-heavy final stretch of the North Star season. “The parity is there. We’re pretty level across the board.”

Two nights after suffering a tough loss to the Wasilla Warriors, the Colony Knights bounced back with a big win of their own.

Colony used three early goals and three unanswered scores to post the 6-1 win.The result created a logjam at the top of the North Star standings. The Knights are now locked in a first-place tie with Wasilla, sharing a 6-2-1 mark. Palmer, which skated into Saturday’s game in first place, fell to third with the loss and now stands at 6-2-0.

The three Valley teams are fighting for the top 2 seeds in the upcoming North Star Conference tournament. A top 2 seed comes with a first-round bye.

Colony, which dropped a 5-3 decision to Wasilla on Thursday, opened Saturday’s contest with three goals in the first six minutes of play.

“We were pretty disappointed with the way we played the other night against Wasilla,” Smith said. “We came out and played really good.”

Smith shouldered blame for the loss to Wasilla.

“We got caught up running the top 2 lines against Wasilla,” Smith said. “That’s a coaching mistake on my behalf.”

During the Palmer game, Smith said, the Knights went back to what had been working for Colony throughout the season, using the team’s depth to the Knights’ advantage.

The result led to goals scored by the first, third and fourth lines.

“Everybody contributed in that win,” Smith said. “That’s kind of what we have to do. We need to use our advantage of being deep.”

Six different Knights scored in the victory.

Isaac Vincent opened the scoring for Colony, finding the back of the net at the 13:35 mark of the first. Just more than a minute later Jake Branch scored for CHS. Cooper Smith scored at the 9:07 mark to give Colony the 3-0 advantage.

Colony also ended strong, scoring the game’s three final goals. Jake Hessinger and Curtis Foster added second-period goals for Colony. Jacob Link added a tally in the third. The Foster and Link goals came on the power play.

Cole Clements recorded the lone Palmer goal. The power play tally came with 4:37 left in the first, and cut Colony’s lead to 3-1.

Colony outshot Palmer 32-14 in the game.

Two of the conference’s final three games of the regular season (Colony at Palmer tonight, and Palmer at Wasilla Saturday night) will decide the top 2 seeds in the NSC tourney, which begins Feb. 5 in Wasilla.

Heading into tonight’s match. Wasilla and Colony are tied at 6-2-1, just ahead of third-place Palmer (6-2-0). Fourth-place Homer (3-6-1) leads another cluster of teams in the bottom three. Soldotna (2-6-1) is fifth and Kenai (2-7-0) is in sixth. Soldotna and Kenai meet Saturday at 4:15 p.m. in Soldotna. Homer is done for the regular season.

The No. 3 seed meets the No. 6 seed in the first round of the conference tourney, and the No. 4 seed plays No. 5.

Colony 6, Palmer 1

Saturday, Menard Arena

First period — 1. Colony- Vincent (Link) 13:35; 2. Colony- Branch (Kirsch, Griffith) 12:18; 3. Colony- Smith (Link, Mitchell) 9:07; 4. Palmer- Clements (Foster) pp 4:37.

Second period — 5. Colony- Hessinger (Riekena) 7:47; 6. Colony- Foster (Link, Boyer) pp 6:06.

Third period — 7. Colony- Link (Boyer, Thiele) pp 10:27.

Shots on goal: Palmer 8-1-5--14, Colony 12-9-11--32, Saves: Palmer- Robertson 3-x-x--3, Grogan 6-7-10--23.

Palmer beats Lathrop

PALMER — The Palmer Moose continued their winning streak with a 6-1 non conference victory over the Lathrop Malemutes Friday at the MTA Events Center in Palmer.

Chris Dojka and Valery Dietz each bagged a pair of goals to help extend Palmer’s winning streak to six games. Darren Fish and Nathaniel Savel also scored for the Moose.

Palmer outshot Lathrop 28-14 in the game.

Palmer 6, Lathrop 1

Friday, MTA Events Center

First period — 1. Palmer- Dojka (Meyers) 1:06.

Second period — 2. Palmer- Savel (Fish, Meyers) 4:55, 3. Palmer- Dietz (Dojka, Bembenek) 0:32.

Third period — 4. Palmer- Dojka (Meyers, Bembenek) 14:24; 5. Palmer- Fish (Clements) 10:35; 6. Lathrop- Trujillo (Parker, Walker) 6:29; 7. Palmer- Dietz (unassisted) 3:06.

Shots on goal: Lathrop 14, Palmer 28.