Prep hockey: Defending champs slip by Warriors

ANCHORAGE — After South Anchorage edged the Wasilla Warriors squad 2-1 at the Ben Boeke Ice Arena in Anchorage on Wednesday, WHS head coach Bill Sturdevant said that, as a coach, one never wants to be happy about taking a loss.

But Sturdevant can be happy about how the Warriors played against the three-time defending 4A state champions.

“I certainly can walk away feeling really good about how we played,” Sturdevant said.

The Warriors played a pair of scoreless periods with South Anchorage, did not allow an even-strength goal to the Wolverines and sophomore Matthew Friese scored in the third period to bring the Warriors within a score of tying a team that has dominated the state since the school opened its doors in 2004.

The game remained scoreless until early in the third period when South forward Connor Wright scored his first of two power-play goals in the period. Wright gave the Wolverines a 1-0 lead, 1 minute and 55 seconds into the third, while South was skating with the 5-on-3 advantage.

Wright posted another power-play goal at the 5:21 mark of the third.

Friese cut the score to 2-1, scoring a 4-on-4 tally at the 7:22 mark. The sophomore broke away from the South defense and found an open spot on the right side of the Wolverines net. Friese took a pass from his older brother, senior Adam Friese, and knocked the puck past South netminder Garrett Barr.

“Matthew got open in front of the net, and Adam found him,” Sturdevant said. “That was what we were trying to do all night. They left Matthew alone. Fortunately, Matthew found a hole and cashed it in.”

South out-shot the Warriors 38-24 in the game, but Sturdevant felt a good percentage of those shots came while the Wolverines were skating on the power play.

Wasilla was penalized 15 times for 48 minutes.

“I would have liked to stay out of the box a little more,” Sturdevant said. “Play a little smarter in that aspect.”

The Warriors did allow the two power-play goals. But overall, Sturdevant was thrilled about how well his team played on the defensive side of the ice.

“Defensively, our team played really well,” Sturdevant said. “We turned away a lot of opportunities, especially 5-on-5. Our defenseman stood up their forwards, we didn’t give up two man odd-man rushes and our defense and forwards were getting back into the zone.”

According to the Wolverines’ team Web site, hometeamsonline.com/?SAWH, the Warriors were the first team this season to prevent South from scoring an even-strength goal.

“We were even 5-on-5 with that South team all night long,” Sturdevant said.

Sturdevant also pointed out by scoring a 4-on-4 goal and not allowing an even-strength tally, the Warriors were able to skate off the ice without having any of their players tagged with a negative plus-minus rating — sort of a rarity for a loss.

The Warriors are also only the fourth team to keep the Wolverines scoreless in consecutive periods this season, according to their Web site.

South (14-2-2) is averaging 5.17 goals per game this season.

The Warriors have just one regular seson game remaining this season. Wasilla will face the Houston Hawks in nonconference action at the Curtis C. Menard II Memorial Ice Arena on Jan. 25 at 7 p.m.

The following weekend, Wasilla, Colony and Palmer head to Homer to compete in the North Star Conference tournament.

South Anchorage 2, Wasilla 1

Wednesday, Ben Boeke Ice Arena

Wasilla 0-0-1—1

South 0-0-2—2

First period — no scoring.

Second period — no scoring.

Third period — 1. South- Wright (Allred) pp 1:55, 2. South- Wright (Carson, Allred) pp 5:21, 3. Wasilla- M. Friese (A. Friese) 7:22.

Shots on goal: Wasilla 9-7-8—24, South 13-14-11—38; Saves: Wasilla- Dargis 13-14-9—36, Service Barr 9-7-7—23; Penalties: Wasilla 15-for-48, South 10-for-20.

Warriors skate

past Knights

WASILLA — Brothers Matthew and Adam Friese each scored two goals to lead the Wasilla Warriors to a 9-0 North Star Conference win over the Colony Knights at the Menard Memorial Ice Arena on Tuesday.

Senior Joe Barkley, senior Harvey Finch, freshman Ryder Conroy, senior Brian Turner and senior Dane Wilson also scored for the Warriors.

Wasilla goaltender stopped 17 Colony shots to earn the shutout.

Colony netminder Charlie Holman recorded 35 saves in the loss.

Wasilla 9, Colony 0

Tuesday, Menard Memorial Arena

Colony 0-0-0—0

Wasilla 4-1-4—9

First period — 1. Wasilla- Barkley (Wilson, Johnston) 14:29, 2. Wasilla- M. Friese (Troisi, A. Friese) 13:11, 3. Wasilla- A. Friese (Wohlers, Wilson) 3:12, 4. Wasilla- Finch (Wilson) 2:41.

Second period — 5. Wasilla- Conroy (M. Friese, Edwards) 3:46.

Third period — 6. Wasilla- A. Friese (M. Friese) 8:16, 7. Wasilla- Turner (Finch, Conroy) 7:05, 8. Wasilla- Wilson (Barkley, Wohlers) 9:33, 9. Wasilla- M. Friese (Wohlers) 4:43.

Shots on goal: Colony 1-4-12—17, Wasilla 16-10-18—44; Saves: Colony- Holman 12-9-14—35, Wasilla- Hugli 1-4-12—17; Penalties: Colony 4-for-8, Wasilla 8-for-16.

Moose blank Delta

GLENNALLEN — The Palmer Moose blanked the Delta Huskies 5-0 on the opening day of the Ice Cube Classic in Glennallen on Thursday.

Junior forward Zack Richards scored twice and sophomore goaltender Jonas Naegele stopped all 18 of Delta’s shots to lead the Moose.

Justin Perkins, Jesse Cassidy and Michael Hanson also scored for Palmer.

The Moose out-shot Delta 31-18 in the game.

Palmer continues in the three-day round-robin style tournament against Hutchison, a Fairbanks program, today at 2 p.m.

The Moose face host Glennallen on Saturday at 1:30 p.m.

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.