North Star hockey seeds set

PALMER — It took a series of tiebreakers and a flip of a coin, but first-round matchups were finally settled early Monday evening.

And local pucks fans will be treated to an all-Valley match in the first round of the North Star Conference Championships, which starts Thursday at the Menard Arena in Wasilla.

Third-seeded Colony (4-4-2) will open with rival Palmer (1-8-1), Thursday at 7:15 p.m. Fourth-seeded Homer (4-4-2) meets fifth-seed Kenai (2-7-1) at 5 p.m. Top seed Wasilla (10-0-0) and second-seeded Soldotna (4-2-4) earned first-round byes and will play winners of the opening-round games on Friday.

“It feels great, I’m glad for sure,” Colony head coach Jamie Smith said of landing the third seed.

It’s tough facing a rival in Round 1, and Palmer, despite its rough region mark, boasts one of the top goalies in the NSC, junior Ashton Good.

“It makes me nervous because of Good. He’s a tough one to beat for sure,” Smith said of Good.

Good enjoyed a stretch midway through the season in which he didn’t allow a goal for 118 straight minutes, a span of nearly three full games. That stretch included a scoreless overtime tie with Soldotna and a 1-0 overtime loss to Kenai the following night.

If anyone’s excited about that matchup, it has to be Colony senior Jonathon Boyer. Colony has scored eight goals against Palmer this year, and Boyer has seven of them. Boyer scored four goals, including the game-winner, during a 5-4 overtime win over the Moose early in the year. He notched the hat trick during a recent 3-0 win over Palmer.

Smith said he’s not exactly sure if there’s a single reason why Boyer has had so much success against Good this season.

“Boyer’s just a sniper,” Smith said. “He kind of picks (goalies) apart.”

Boyer and teammate Morgan McJimsey have combined for about 80 percent of Colony’s goals this year.

“He’s so long, he’s tough to deal with,” Smith said of the 6-foot-5 forward. “The kid is unbelievably athletic.”

Wasilla enters the tourney with a perfect conference mark, and is the only team with more than four NSC wins this season. The Warriors are also riding a 12-game winning streak.

“Watching the game tape of those games, we’ve focused on trying to be as perfect as we can in every game, on every shift,” Wasilla head coach Bill Sturdevant said.

Sturdevant said a recent 4-0 win over Palmer is a perfect example.

“It’s one of the most complete games we’ve played as a team in a long time,” he said. “We’re working on those little details. Defensively, we’re playing really well. Usually when you are able to take care of that as a team, that’s when the goals start to follow.”

Soldotna, Colony and Homer each have four conference wins heading into the NSC tourney. Sturdevant said the conference is tougher than some of the records may indicate.

“You look at the records, it’s interesting. There are six wins between the first-place team and the second-place team,” Sturdevant said. “But with that being said, four of our wins are one-goal games. Those easily could have gone one way or another.”

Another number that stands out — five of the six teams in the NSC have a combined 10 ties. Soldotna has four ties this year. Three of those were scoreless ties. Colony and Homer each played in a pair of tie games. Palmer and Kenai were both in one tie game. Palmer and Colony have also been part of scoreless ties. While in many years, a tourney often comes down to the hottest team, Smith said it may come down to a single position.

“I think it’s the hottest goalie,” Smith said. “There are some good goalies in this conference.”

The top goaltender from every school in the conference (Wasilla’s Lauren Massie, Palmer’s Good, Colony’s Colton Beebe, Kenai’s Justin Alvey, Soldotna’s Cody Harvey and Homer’s Alex Saranov) have all recorded at least one shutout in conference action this year.

“That’s an absolute rarity,” Sturdevant said.

The Colony-Palmer winner will move ahead to face Soldotna Friday at 7:15 p.m. at the Menard. Wasilla will draw the Homer-Kenai winner Friday at 5 p.m.

Winners of the semifinal games play for the championship Saturday at 5 p.m.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com and find him by searching Valley Sports Huddle on Facebook.