Moose stumble at Soldotna

SOLDOTNA — Palmer netminder Jonas Naegele was tested early and often Thursday night.

Peppered with five Soldotna shots in the opening three minutes of action, Naegele denied each one with a variety of equipment.

But his chest protector, left skate, glove, helmet and the crossbar could only help so much.

Outshooting the Moose 37-19, SoHi got two goals from Brad Duwe and four assists from Kevin Garske in avenging an earlier loss to Palmer with a 5-3 win in North Star Conference play at the Soldotna Sports Center.

It was Palmer’s first conference setback of the season after handing the Stars a 3-2 loss in the Valley on Dec. 6.

“It’s one of our goals is to always come out, just come out firing, get right after it,” said Soldotna coach Aaron Swanson. “For us, if we kind of sit back and just try to ease our way into the game, we’ll find ourselves down a couple of goals early. That’s something we’ve really been working on a lot in our games lately and it’s been working well for us.

“From the drop of the puck we were after it. That just sets the tempo for the whole game for us.”

With the season series now split, both teams won’t meet again until a possible matchup in the conference tournament in February. Soldotna’s win provided the Stars (9-7-1, 4-1-1 NSC) with all the ammo they should need should that showdown come to fruition.

“It’s a big win for us. They’re first-place in the conference right now coming into this weekend’s play,” Swanson said. “For us it’s more just having the confidence, we know we can beat them now. If we play them again in the conference tournament, we know that we can do it.”

The Moose (10-8, 6-1 NSC) nearly snatched all that momentum in the second period, though.

Trailing 3-1 after Garske set up Duwe for a one-time slapper just 51 seconds into the second and Duwe returned the favor to Sean Endsley only 2:05 later, Palmer’s Jared Hanson netted his second of the game when he corralled a rebound from his own shot and beat SoHi goaltender Dawson Pearson in slicing the deficit in half with 10:37 left.

Following a hooking penalty on SoHi’s Nick Pokryfki with 3:48 remaining in the middle frame, one of only four on the game for the Stars, the Moose needed just eight seconds of the man advantage to tie the game when Zach Richards poked a rebound past Pearson, who was then replaced by Stephen Kendrick.

“We tell our goalies to prepare mentally to be in the game whether they’re starting or backing up,” Swanson said. “Stephen came in and did a good job closing out the win for us. He was ready to play.”

After a slapper from the point clanked off the crossbar early in the third, Soldotna didn’t take long to regain the lead as Alex Stone tipped a Josh Harvey shot past Naegele with 10:21 left in the period.

“We’ve just been working on creating traffic, getting those garbage goals, tipped goals, rebounds and stuff,” Swanson explained. “Just try to create offense wherever we can.”

Palmer couldn’t muster the equalizer despite a number of solid chances in the waning minutes and Duwe added an empty-netter in narrowing the gap for first place in the conference.

“I thought it changed the complexion of the last nine minutes for sure,” Palmer coach Brad Hanson said of the eventual game-winner.

The game was eerily similar to the first affair, too, when Palmer struck first and Soldotna answered with two goals before the Moose netted two more in emerging victorious.

This time, SoHi never trailed, as Daniel Markstrom staked the Stars to an early lead when he tipped a Garske shot into the back of the net just minutes after the opening flurry of shots.

“It was nice that we never trailed in the game. That comes back to getting after it early,” Swanson said. “I’ve got to give Palmer credit. They definitely just kept coming back at us and taking advantage of the opportunities we gave them.”

Coach Hanson, on the other hand, didn’t believe the early peppering set the tone for the game in which the Stars outshot his team for the second time this season.

“You step off a five-hour bus trip, you’ve got a little buildup in the legs. One of the concerns is you’ve got to get moving and that’s what happens,” he said. “We were hoping we didn’t get down early like we did. But that’s one of the things that happens.”

Soldotna 5, Palmer 3

Friday, Soldotna Sports Center

Palmer 1 2 0 —3

Soldotna 1 2 2 —5

First period — 1. Soldotna, Markstrom (Garske, Fisher), 5:36 (pp); 2. Palmer, J. Hanson (Isaacs), 13:21. Penalties — Palmer 5 for 18:00; Soldotna 2 for 4:00.

Second period — 3. Soldotna, Duwe (Garske, Endsley), 0:51 (pp); 4. Soldotna, Endsley (Duwe, Fisher), 2:56; 5. Palmer, J. Hanson (un.), 4:23; 6. Palmer, Richards (Danielowski, Isaacs), 11:20. Penalties — Palmer 2 for 4:00; Soldotna 2 for 4:00.

Third period — 7. Soldotna, Stone (Harvey, Garske), 4:39; 8. Soldotna, Duwe (Markstrom, Garske), 14:30 (empty net). Penalties — none.

Shots on goal — Palmer 4-9-6—19; Soldotna 10-17-10—37.

Goalies — Palmer, Naegele (36 shots, 32 saves); Soldotna (Pearson, Kendrick, 19 shots, 16 saves).

Warriors, Mustangs play to draw

EAGLE RIVER — Wasilla sophomore Ryder Conroy punched in the game-tying goal to force a 2-2 against the Chugiak Mustangs at the McDonald Ice Arena in Eagle River on Tuesday.

Conroy recorded the unassisted tally with 2 minutes and 13 seconds left in regulation. Sophomore Trent Wohlers also posted a first-period goal for Wasilla.

Sophomore Chris Yaskus stopped 22 shots in the WHS net.

Wasilla 2, Chugiak 2

Tuesday, McDonald Arena

Wasilla 1-0-1—2

Chugiak 1-1-0—0

First period — 1. Wasilla- Wohlers (Hanson) 8:53, 2. Chugiak- Linder (Casey) 6:26.

Second period — 3. Chugiak- Wells (Matthews, Topt) sh 4:37.

Third period — 4. Wasilla- Conroy (unassisted) 2:13.

Shots on goal: Wasilla 9-4-8—21, Chugiak 8-7-9—24; Saves: Wasilla- Yaskus 7-6-9—22, Chugiak- Lindquist 8-4-7—19; Penalties: Wasilla 2-for-4, Chugiak 8-for-32.

Warriors top Kenai

SOLDOTNA — Trailing 3-0 entering the third, the Kenai Central Kardinals twice trimmed the deficit to one goal but each time the Warriors responded in clinging to a 5-3 North Star Conference win.

Freshman Chancie Hanson staked Wasilla to a 2-0 lead on a pair of power-play goals and Trent Wohlers made it 3-0 when he added a shorthanded tally.

But Kenai’s Brady Perkins cut it 3-1 when he scored 1:53 into the third and Zack Zulkanycz sliced it to 3-2 only 1:45 later.

Wasilla responded when Jade Johnston beat Kenai netminder Alex Koch only six seconds into a power play and after Kenai’s Connor Hamman again made it a one-goal game off assists from Morgan Cunningham and Ryan Fusaro, Wohlers iced it with his second of the contest.