Palmer goalie enjoys great weekend, but Moose fall

SOLDOTNA — On a weekend during which Ashton Good was beyond good, it took a pair of North Star Conference rivals more than two full games to sneak a puck past Palmer’s great junior goaltender.

After Good used his 40 saves to force a scoreless tie with Soldotna on Friday, the Moose rode Good and his 20 saves into overtime the following afternoon. But Kenai managed to net the game-winner.

TJ Wagoner knocked in a rebound to score the shorthanded game-winning goal midway through the overtime frame to give the Kardinals a 1-0 NSC win over the Moose Saturday afternoon at the Soldotna Sports Center.

Jake Eubank created the play, picking up the puck at center ice. Eubank raced up the left wing and put a shot on goal. Good was able to make the initial save, but Wagoner crashed and forced the loose puck into the Palmer net.

Before that Wagoner goal, Good had not allowed a goal in more than two full games. His shutout streak actually stretched back to Thursday when he kept the Mariners scoreless during the third period of a 3-1 loss to Homer. Before Wagoner’s goal on Saturday, Good had not allowed a score since the 1:35 mark of the second period of the loss to Homer. That’s 118 minutes of scoreless hockey, if you’re counting.

“He played out of his mind,” Palmer coach Brad Hanson told the Peninsula Clarion after the Soldotna tie. “To take 40 shots on goal and not let one in, that’s crazy. That’s our best guy.

“It’s a great tie for us. I just told them to keep playing and they held them off.”

SoHi outshot Palmer 40-10 in the game, including 7-4 in the extra eight-minute overtime period, but simply came up short.

“Their goaltender played really well, stopped shots and even with traffic in front of him, played the puck well,” Soldotna coach Aaron Swanson said. “That being said, we had a lot of perimeter shots, we weren’t creating as much traffic as we’d like to, we weren’t going as hard as we should’ve been, and we definitely weren’t getting the rebounds we should have been.”

Late in the game, Soldotna pressed Palmer even harder, resulting in multiple moments of chaos in front of the net that had the crowd on their feet. With 1:01 left in overtime, Soldotna’s Dalton Pearson caught a breakaway with two Palmer players trailing, looking at the net, but mistimed his move and failed to knock the puck in.

“I was telling them to create more traffic and get the rebounds and hope the goalie doesn’t see the shots,” Swanson said. “It’s part of the whole process, just getting through games and learning and growing. We hope to be peaking at the region and state tournaments.”

Knights win, tie

SOLDOTNA — Goals have been scarce at the Soldotna Sports Center.

A day after Soldotna and Palmer battled to a scoreless tie, and hours after Kenai edged Palmer 1-0 in overtime, Colony and Soldotna skated to a scoreless tie late Saturday afternoon in Soldotna.

Colony’s Colton Beebe stopped 32 Soldotna shots in the tie. Soldotna’s Cody Harvey made 30 saves.

It was the second tie of the road trip for the Knights, who tied Kenai 3-3 on Thursday. Colony sandwiched a victory with those ties. Morgan McJimsey netted a natural hat trick in the second period to lead the Knights to a 4-1 win over Homer on Friday in Homer.

Homer led 1-0 after the first period after a shot from Dennis Sanarov was netted 10:13 into the game, but after McJimsey had his way with the Mariners, Homer wasn’t able to mount a comeback.

Jonathan Boyer helped McJimsey with two assists, and had a goal of his own in the third period (assist from none other than McJimsey). Homer outshot Colony 22-16.

Warriors sweep trip

HOMER — Wasilla capped a perfect weekend with a 3-2 win over Homer in Homer Saturday afternoon.

Colton Fletcher scored twice to help Wasilla stay undefeated in North Star Conference play. Troy Verplancke also scored for the Warriors.

The Warriors took control early of a Friday afternoon game with Kenai and never let up, resulting in a lopsided 9-0 win over the Kards at the Soldotna Sports Center.

“Our goal was to keep playing the same way, and not get away from doing what we were supposed to do,” Wasilla coach Jeff Urban told the Peninsula Clarion. “We were getting the puck really deep and that was the plan.”

A day after tying Colony 3-3, the optimism and energy from that game never appeared for Kenai, according to coach Pete Iverson.

“It definitely wasn’t there, we came out flat, we never really found that spark we needed to get going,” Iverson said. “Wasilla came out strong right off the bat, and we were just holding on the rest of the game.”

For the Kards, it seemed the only bright spot was the third period, which, until Wasilla’s Jack Reeves scored with 28 seconds left, almost saw Kenai hold Wasilla scoreless. Wasilla outshot Kenai 33-9 overall.

“Our goal was to at least win the third period, but we let our guard down and they knocked that late one in,” Iverson said. “We try to focus on winning the small battles and getting the small things done.”

Fletcher led the Warriors with the hat trick, and Brett Keene scored two goals. Blake Carricaburu, Luke Schruf and Tanner Schachle also scored for WHS. Kiana Verplancke earned the shutout in the WHS net.

Peninsula Clarion reporter Joey Klecka contributed to this report.

Kenai 1, Palmer 0 OT

Saturday, Soldotna Sports Center

First period — no scoring.

Second period — no scoring.

Third period — no scoring.

Overtime — 1. Kenai- Wagoner (Eubank) sh 4:23.

Shots on goal: Palmer 8-7-11-1—26, Kenai 10-5-3-3—21; Saves: Palmer- Good 10-5-2-3—20, Kenai- Alvey 8-7-11-1—26; Penalties: Palmer 4 for 8, Kenai 7 for 14.

Soldotna 0, Palmer O, OT

Friday, Soldotna Sports Center

First period — no scoring.

Second period — no scoring.

Third period — no scoring.

Overtime — no scoring.

Shots on goal — Soldotna 7-13-13-7—40; Palmer 1-1-4-4—10; Goalies — Soldotna, Harvey (10 shots, 10 saves); Palmer, Good (40 shots, 40 saves).

Wasilla 9, Kenai 0

Friday, Soldotna Sports Center

First period — 1. Wasilla, Fletcher (unassisted), 3:47; 2. Wasilla, Carricaburu (Harren), 6:16; 3. Wasilla, Keene (Carricaburu), 11:25; 4. Wasilla, Fletcher (Cooley, Schachle), 11:42. Penalties — Wasilla 0; Kenai 0.

Second period — 5. Wasilla, Schachle (Fletcher, Schruf), 1:16; 6. Wasilla, Keene (Cooley), 1:47; 7. Wasilla, Schruf (Jensen, Walker), 9:49; 8. Wasilla, Fletcher (Schachle, Butcher), 10:42. Penalties — Wasilla 1 for 2:00; Kenai 1 for 2:00.

Third period — 9. Wasilla, Reeves (unassisted), 14:32. Penalties — Wasilla 2 for 4:00; Kenai 0.

Shots on goal — Wasilla 10-15-8—33; Kenai 3-5-1—9.

Goalies — Wasilla, Verplancke (9 shots, 9 saves); Kenai, Alvey (33 shots, 24 saves).

Colony 4, Homer 1

Friday, Homer

First period — 1. Homer, D. Sanarov (Duggar), 10:13. Penalties — Colony 2 for 4:00; Homer 2 for 4:00.

Second period — 2. Colony, McJimsey (Boyer), :58; 3. Colony, McJimsey (Boyer, Foster), 3:11; 4. Colony, McJimsey (Sanders), 7:35. Penalties — Colony 2 for 4:00; Homer 3 for 17:00.

Third period — 5. Colony, Boyer (McJimsey), :25. Penalties — Colony 2 for 4:00; Homer 1 for 2:00.

Shots on goal — Colony 5-7-4—16; Homer 8-6-8—22.

Goalies — Colony, Beebe (22 shots, 21 saves); Homer, A. Sanarov (16 shots, 12 saves).