Palmer erases early deficit to beat Valley rival

WASILLA —Early Thursday night, the Wasilla Warriors looked ready to rid Palmer of its claim as the lone unbeaten team in North Star Conference play. But Palmer scored a pair of unanswered goals to score a 4-3 win over the rival Warriors.

The Moose erased an early two-goal deficit in the first and evened the score after Wasilla took a 3-2 lead later in the game.

“I was really happy with the way the kids kept responding for sure,” Palmer head coach Brad Hanson said. “They could have folded a couple times, but they kept working.”

Junior Dalton Buness scored twice, and seniors Piers LaFrance and Nick Reeves added goals to help Palmer improve to 6-0-0 in North Star play. But to earn the victory, the Moose had to overcome an early surge by the Warriors.

Junior Michael Johnston scored on an early power-play to give the Warriors the 1-0 lead less than three minutes into regulation. Johnston moved in from his position on the blue line and fired a quick wrister from between the circles to give the Warriors the early advantage. About three minutes later, junior Dylan McRee tacked on to the Wasilla lead. McRee raced into the Palmer defensive zone and fired a wrist shot of his own from the left wing circle into the far side of the net.

“They came out hitting, they came out ready to go,” Hanson said of the Warriors, who dropped to 3-3-0 in the NSC with the loss. “They were taking it to us early.”

Buness put the Moose on the scoreboard at the 7:52 mark, using the first of his two goals to cut the Wasilla lead in half. Buness tapped in the rebound of an Ivan Good shot to get the goal.

“Fortunately we were able to keep within two goals,” Hanson said. “We were able to get a goal and make it a game.”

With 3:25 left in the period, LaFrance used a slapshot from the blue line to tie it at 2. But with just 21 seconds left, Wasilla senior William Harren snuck a shot in the net to give the Warriors the 3-2 advantage.

Down by one heading into the second, Palmer was able to quickly respond during the middle frame. With the teams skating 4-on-4, Reeves tied the score with a shot from the point.

Late in the period, Buness scored again to give his squad the 4-3 lead, Good set up the Buness goal, sending a centering pass from behind the net to Buness.

Next week, the Moose and the Warriors each make a trip south to the Kenai Peninsula to play NSC rivals Homer, Kenai and Soldotna.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/matsu_sports.

Palmer 4, Wasilla 3

Thursday, Palmer Ice Arena

First period — 1. Wasilla- Johnston (McRee, Keene) pp 12:11; 2. Wasilla- McRee (Keene, Workman) 9:10; 3. Palmer- Buness (I. Good, Garrod) pp 7:52; 4. Palmer- LaFrance (Acher, Morino) pp 3:25; 5. Wasilla- We. Harren (unassisted) 0:21.8.

Second period — 6. Palmer- N. Reeves (Acher) 13:47; 7. Palmer- Buness (I. Good, Acher) 4:00.