Palmer peppers West for 5-1 win

PALMER — A season after skating off the ice state champions, the West Anchorage Eagles are sporting a far different look. Gone is state player of the year, goalie Blake Mendenhall, who backstopped the Eagles to the crown, as well as a number of other players who helped West win Alaska hockey gold.

Even though it’s a new flock of Eagles flying into the 2010-11 season, West is still the defending state champ. But that’s something Palmer head coach Brad Hanson didn’t want to fixate on as his squad hosted the Eagles Wednesday night at the Palmer Ice Arena.

“I think we need to focus on getting better regardless of who we are playing,” Hanson said after his team’s 5-1 win over West. “It’s a nice win, but we’ve got a lot of things to clean up.”

Junior Dalton Buness scored a pair of goals and Palmer out shot West 33-9 en route to the non-conference win.

Palmer improved to 2-1 win the victory and saw four different players score, but Hanson stressed there’s still work to be done during the early stretch of the season.

“I told them we need to focus on getting better,” Hanson said. “We won, but there’s a lot of things we can do better.”

After a scoreless first, Palmer found the back of the net three times during the middle frame. Buness buried both of his goals on an odd-man rush, and Kristian Seward, Stephen Acher and Nick Reeves also scored in the win.

Buness scored for the first time with 18 seconds left in the second period. Senior Piers LaFrance swiped a pass near the red line and broke free from the West defense. Buness trailed to set up the 2-on-1, and after LaFrance sent a quick pass across the zone, Buness was able to find the back of the net.

“It was a good pass from Piers to set it up,” Hanson said.

Buness benefited from another Palmer rush early in the third, knocking in the rebound of a Miles George attempt. George recorded an assist on both of the Buness goals.

Acher gave the Moose the 1-0 lead early in the second. During the first minute of the period, Thomas Morino stormed the puck into the West defensive zone. Morino put a shot on goal, and Acher crashed to net the rebound.

After Nick Bruner tied the score for West, Seward posted the eventual game-winner, after he skated the puck out of the Palmer defensive zone and beat West goalie Darien Dahl.

Reeves scored an empty-netter, sending the puck nearly the length of the ice, to round out the scoring.

Freshman Ahston Good needed to make only eight saves to earn the win.

Palmer is back on the ice tonight to host the Chugiak Mustangs at 7 p.m. at the PIA.

Palmer 5, West Anchorage 1

Wednesday, Palmer Ice Arena

First period — no scoring. Second period — 1. Palmer- Acher (Morino) 14:04; 2. West- Bruner (Hell, Turchanivov) 11:03; 3. Palmer- Seward (Harrison) 4:09; 4. Palmer- Buness (LaFrance, George) 0:18. Third period — 5. Palmer- Buness (George, Harrison) 12:41; 6. Palmer- N. Reeves (J. Reeves) en 0:13.

Shots on goal: West 3-5-1—9, Palmer 11-10-12—33; Saves: West- Dahl 11-7-10—28, Palmer- A. Good 3-4-1—8; Penalties: West 7-for-25, Palmer 7-for-22.