Moose net victory over Valley rival

WASILLA -- Any way you look at it, Wednesday night produced a big win for the Palmer hockey team.

It was not only a check in the win column but it was a decisive victory, as Palmer skated past the crosstown rival Colony Knights 5-2 at the Brett Memorial Ice Arena.

The Moose scored three unanswered goals to break a 2-2 tie and seal the win.

"Definitely it is a big win," Moose head coach Brian Fish said. "If you have been around Palmer hockey the last couple years, you would see that we have struggled to get the numbers and our team into the win column. We have been a team that focused on hard work and teamwork and now our kids are learning how to win."

Palmer used their aggressive play to consistently frustrate the Knights, and freshman goaltender Kyle Berti turned in a stellar performance for the Moose.

"We are going to ride that wave until it crashes," Fish said of Berti. "It makes a huge difference. When the team sees him make a big save, they can take a deep breath and go out and skate hard the next shift. It gives us confidence knowing we have someone back there that can stop the puck."

Berti stopped 33 shots in the contest.

It did not take long for the freshman netminder to make momentum swinging saves. Four minutes into the first period, Colony's Matt Luthi sent a backhanded shot across the Palmer zone. Berti leapt to the left to deflect the Luthi shot and quickly sprawled back to the right to stop a Doug Lehe shot.

The momentum swing led to Palmer's first goal. Wade Riggs won a face-off for Palmer at the other end, chipping the puck past his Colony counterpart. Riggs retrieved the puck and slid it past the right skate of Colony goaltender Nolan Rein.

The Moose could have taken a 3-0 lead in the first period. The Moose had a pair of goals disallowed in the third period.

Dwayne MacKenzie looked as if he completed a one-timer from Kent Blaylock, but kicked in the puck with his skate rather than his stick according to the referees. Just 79 seconds later, Jesse Marcott blasted a slapshot past Rein but the play was whistled dead due to an offsides infraction.

Palmer had to wait until early in the second period to have another goal count. Joe Horcsik took a pass from Jonah Stewart to register Palmer's second goal of the game. The score was created by a shot from from the blueline by Katy Applin. Stewart picked up the Stewart rebound to make the pass.

Colony got on the scoreboard at the 12-minute mark as Lehe scored a shorthanded goal. Patrick Geary scored an even strength goal to tie the game at 2-2.

With just less than three minutes to go in the second period, Palmer broke the 2-2 tie. Kent Blaylock intercepted a Colony pass and sent the puck up the ice to teammate Alex Senta who scored the go-ahead and eventual game winning goal.

Riggs scored his second goal of the game and Stewart added a power play tally in the third period.