Patriots drop Moose in Palmer opener

WASILLA -- The Palmer Moose dropped a 5-2 decision to the North Pole Patriots in prep hockey action at the Brett Memorial Ice Arena Wednesday.

The game marked the first appearance of the year for the 2002-03 edition of the Moose pucksters.

Palmer jumped out to a 1-0 lead when Sam Roy scored with 1:28 to go in the first period.

Palmer center Jonah Stewart skated into the North Pole zone and dumped the puck back to Roy. The PHS defensemen, put a shot on goal that was saved by the NPHS netminder and in a scuffle in front of the net, Roy found the puck again and put it into the net.

With only 17 ticks left on the clock in the first period, North Pole's Matt Patty scored to tie the game at 1-1.

Patty soon struck again, scoring just seconds into the second frame. Patty took a pass for Scott Sikorski to tally his second point of the night.

Despite the Patty goal, Palmer dominated the first period. North Pole was only able to get a few opportunities to score and minutes went by were the puck did not get out of the North Pole zone.

Throughout the contest, Palmer was much more physical than the Patriots. An aspect that Palmer may use a a strength this season.

The Patriots did create a trio of odd man rushes in the first, but the shots went wide on each opportunity.

Jonah Stewart scored midway through the third cut the North Pole lead to 3-2. Alex Senta moved the puck up the ice on the play and kicked it back to Stewart were he put in a wrist shot from the right circle.

North Pole would score twice within a two minute period, late in the contest to seals the game.

"Overall I thought we played well," Palmer head coach Brian Fish said of the contest. "The effort was deffinately there."