Power play sparks Warriors over Eagles

ANCHORAGE — During the first two games of the 2010-11 season, the Wasilla Warriors struggled while skating with the man advantage. But on Friday, things started clicking for the Wasilla power-play units.

Wasilla scored four times on the power play en route to a 5-2 win over the West Anchorage Eagles at the Ben Boeke Ice Arena in Anchorage.

“We’ve been kind of sputtering on the power play,” Wasilla head coach Bill Sturdevant said.

Senior Mike Edwards scored twice with the advantage, and senior Zach Korsmo and junior Chancie Hanson added power-play tallies to lead the Warriors past the defending state champions. Sturdevant said simple adjustments led to the improvement.

“We decided we need to go in and do the dirty work in front of the net,” Sturdevant said. “Create traffic in front of the net and put pucks on net. It paid off for us.”

Junior Rell Sturdevant added a 4-on-4 score for the Warriors and sophomore goaltender Zach Eastham turned away 11 West shots to help Wasilla (1-2) grab its first win of the year. Junior Michael Johnston led the Warriors with three assists.

Max Osgood and Gio Barth scored for West, which was outshot 35-13 by the Warriors.

Dimond 10, Wasilla 0

WASILLA — Dimond scored nine times during the final two periods to post a 10-0 nonconference win over the Wasilla Warriors at the Brett Memorial Ice Arena in Wasilla on Tuesday.

Adrian Ramos and Tyler Thompson each scored twice for the Lynx, who outshot Wasilla 56-14 in the win.

Sophomore Zach Eastham made 46 saves in the loss. Eastham stopped 13 of the 14 Dimond shots during the first period.

Dimond snuck only one puck past Eastham during the first, but scored four times in the second. The Lynx scored both shorthanded and on the power play during the middle frame.

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com. Follow him at Twitter at twitter.com/matsu_sports.