Moose rebound to muzzle Wolfpack

PALMER — Tyler Isaacs has been a staple on Palmer’s second line for much the last two years of his prep career, but this weekend the junior forward suddenly found himself on the back row.

Even though he’s at a new position — defense — the junior proved Saturday he’s still contributing on the offensive end.

Isaacs scored the game-winning power-play goal with just more than a minute left in regulation to give the Palmer Moose a 2-1 nonconference win over the West Valley Wolfpack at the Palmer Ice Arena on Saturday.

“He did a fantastic job,” Palmer head coach Brad Hanson said of Isaacs, who is helping fill the void left by defenseman Dylan Danielowski, who suffered a shoulder injury during a loss to Lathrop on Thursday. “(Tyler’s) very unselfish back there. He worked his butt off. It’s exactly what we needed to have out of him.”

Isaacs skated as one of Palmer’s top four defensemen on Saturday, and still managed to post Palmer’s most critical offensive play.

As the final minute of regulation approached, Palmer captain Zach Richards picked up the puck in transition and sent a pass over to Isaacs. Sitting just shy of the blueline, Isaacs flipped a wrist shot toward the West Valley net. The shot, which sort of curved toward the top corner of the goal, glanced off the glove of West Valley goalie Cacy Wilfer before hitting the twine.

“It was a great shot, right in the top corner,” said Richards, who tallied a pair of assists in the win. “We got lucky, but sometimes that’s all it takes.”

Richards also set up Michael Hanson’s power-play goal early in the second period.

Junior Jonas Naegele backstopped the Moose win, recording 31 saves in the contest.

“Jonas played a great game,” Brad Hanson said. “Our goalies played good all season.”

Fourteen of Naegele’s 31 saves came during the final 15 minutes, a period in which the netminder seemed to spend as much time off his skates as on. Naegele thwarted a number of West Valley offensive surges and absorbed a handful of hits.

“He stopped a couple breakaways, got hit a few times,” Richards said.

When Naegele wasn’t making saves in the third, the Palmer back line was doing its best to keep the puck of out the goal.

Early on the period, after Naegele was knocked to the ice, sophomore blueliner Nick Reeves kicked the puck out of traffic to keep it away from the Palmer net. With just less than five minutes left in the third, Naegele found himself in a pile at the right side of the net, but again the Palmer defense was able to clear the puck.

In the final minutes of regulation, another hit on Naegele helped set up Palmer’s game-winning power-play goal.

With 1:48 left, West Valley’s Patrick Terhune capped a Wolfpack 2-on-1 by skating into Naegele and the Moose net. Turhune was handed the two-minute minor for charging and 46 seconds later Isaacs gave the Moose the win.

The win capped a three-day, three-game stretch against Interior opponents. Lathrop and North Pole both edged Palmer by 3-1 marks earlier in the weekend. As of Saturday, the Malemutes and Patriots have combined for just three losses in 33 games this season.

“They all look good,” Hanson said of the three Fairbanks-area Mid-Alaska Conference teams. “Fairbanks is very solid.”

The games were the first for Palmer after the holiday break. After about two weeks of Richards said it was good to see quality nonconference opponents before continuing the North Star Conference schedule.

“It gets us ready for region play,” Richards said.

Palmer 2, West Valley 1

Saturday, Palmer Ice Arena

West Valley 0-1-0—1

Palmer 0-1-1—2

First period — no scoring.

Second period — 1. Palmer- M. Hanson (Richards) pp 14:48, 2. West Valley- Woods (Shoemaker) 11:37.

Third period — 3. Palmer- Isaacs (Richards) pp 1:02.

Shots on goal: West Valley 8-10-14—32, Palmer 4-9-9—22; Saves: West Valley- Wilfer 4-8-8—20, Palmer- Naegele 8-9-14—31; Power plays: West Valley 0-for-2, Palmer 2-for-7; Penalties: West Valley 8-for-24.

North Pole 3, Palmer 1

Friday, Palmer Ice Arena

First period — 1. North Pole- Sanford (Carney, Kurkowski) pp 11:41, 2. Palmer- J. Hanson (Isaacs) pp 6:24.

Second period — 2. North Pole- Bozeman (unassisted) pp 7:27.

Third period — 3. North Pole- Carney (Bozeman) 6:08.

Shots on goal: North Pole 7-12-9—28, Palmer 5-4-3—12; Saves: North Pole- Copely 5-4-3—11, Palmer- Rauchenstein- 6-11-8—25; Penalties: North Pole-8-for-16, Palmer- 10-for-28.

Hawks swept by

Interior foes

WASILLA — The Houston Hawks finished 0-3 against a trio of Mid-Alaska Conference rivals over the weekend.

North Pole improved to 8-2-0 with a 15-2 win over Houston on Thursday at the Curtis C. Menard II Memorial Ice Arena. Sophomore Sean Ranum scored both goals for Houston.

On Friday, West Valley posted an 11-4 win over the Hawks at the Brett Memorial Ice Arena

Ranum scored twice, and James Shuey and Rye Humphries added goals.

The weekend ended with a 9-0 loss to Lathrop on Saturday at the Menard Arena.

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