Palmer outlasts rival Warriors

PALMER — As Wasilla skated into the first intermission Wednesday night, the Warriors were hit with a bit of de ja vu.

On Tuesday against the Colony Knights, Wasilla quickly found itself down 2-0. And on Wednesday against the Palmer Moose, the Warriors, once again, found themselves facing a two-goal deficit. But unfortunately for the Warriors, history didn’t completely repeat itself.

Palmer also scored a pair of second-period goals and held on for a 4-3 win over the Warriors at the MTA Palmer Ice Arena.

“I know we’re capable of cutting leads, but the trick for us is to keep ourselves from being in that position,” said Wasilla head coach Bill Sturdevant, who watched his team erase that 2-0 deficit to score a 6-3 win over the Knights on Tuesday.

Senior Stephan Acher posted a goal and an assist in the second period and junior captain Ivan Good dished out a pair of assist to help the Moose improve to 5-0-0-0 in North Star Conference play. Wasilla dropped to 3-2-0 with the loss.

Juniors Payton Staskywicz and Dalton Buness scored first-period goals to give the Moose the early lead.

Early in the first, Good led a 2-on-1 break into the Wasilla defensive zone. Good picked up the puck in the Wasilla end and raced up the left wing. With Staskywicz trailing, Good sent a quick pass across the zone to his linemate, who buried the puck in the Wasilla net.

Later in the period, Good won a battle in the right wing corner and centered a pass to Miles George.

George put a quick shot on goal, and Buness scored with a back-handed shot to give the Moose the 2-0 lead.

Wasilla captain Chancie Hanson cut Palmer’s lead in half with a slap shot from the point late in the first. Center Eric Johnson won a face-off in the Palmer defensive zone and dropped a pass back to Hanson, who tucked a puck underneath the Palmer crossbar.

Midway through the second, Palmer picked up a loose puck in transition and capitalized on another odd-man rush, this time while the Warriors skated on the power play. Acher sent a quick pass in front of the Wasilla net, and LaFrance converted for the Moose.

Acher scored to give Palmer the 4-1 lead with 1:40 left in the second.

Wasilla was able to dig into Palmer’s lead with a pair of third-period goals. Rell Sturdevant knocked in a rebound at the 9:44 mark to cut Palmer’s lead in half once again. Defenseman William Harren crashed the net from the blue line and knocked in a loose puck to bring the Warriors within a goal with 3:35 left.

“Both of those kids are capable of scoring goals,” Bill Sturdevant said. “The way we run our team, we’re going to have to get them any way we can. We’re going to have to crash the net, and they did it.”

Freshman Ashton Good stopped 23 Wasilla shots to earn the win in the Palmer net. Sophomore Zach Eastham made 23 saves for Wasilla.

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

Wednesday, MTA Palmer Ice Arena

First period — 1. Palmer- Staskywicz (Good) 13:31; 2. Palmer- Buness (George, Good) 9:42; 3. Wasilla- Ch. Hanson (Johnson) 3:06.

Second period — 4. Palmer- LaFrance (Acher) sh 8:42; 5. Palmer- Acher (Johnson, Inukai) 1:40.

Third period — 6. Wasilla- Sturdevant (Johnson, Bohn) 9:44; 7. Wasilla- Wi. Harren (Workman) sh 3:53.

Shots on goal: Wasilla 10-8-8—26, Palmer 6-11-12—29; Saves: Wasilla- Eastham 4-9-12—26, Palmer- Good 9-8-6—23.