Prep hockey: Houston survives slow start to skate past Colony

Dec. 24, 2006

By MATT TUNSETH/ Frontiersman

WASILLA - The Houston Hawks had the day off from school Friday, and many of the team's players took the opportunity to sleep in late.

And some didn't even wake up until 10 minutes had gone by in the Hawks' game against the Colony Knights.

&#8220We came out really flat and really slow,” Houston head coach Mike Styers said following his team's 6-3 win at the Menard Memorial Ice Arena in Wasilla.

It took a bad penalty to sound the alarm against the winless Knights.

With the game scoreless near the end of the period, Houston was whistled for having too many players on the ice when a Hawks skater played the puck before the player he was replacing could clear the ice. But what would seem like an opportunity for Colony turned into paydirt for the Hawks.

Houston netted two shorthanded goals on the ensuing Colony power play.

Dillon Styers got things going 30 seconds into the penalty, when he split the Colony defense and pinballed the puck off the post - off the back of freshman Colony goalie Charlie Holman and into the net.

&#8220I thought that first goal kind of got us going a little bit,” the elder Styers said.

Just over a minute later, Aaron Burleson got into the act when he banged home a rebound of Jake Henkel's shot. The play was set up when Holman misplayed the puck in his own end and found himself out of position against Houston's skilled pair of forwards.

&#8220Burleson and I work really good together on the penalty kill,” Henkel said after the game. &#8220We kinda know what each other is going to do.”

Styers said he's not sure what got his team motivated when the Knights were up a man.

&#8220I turned to my assistant and said we should play with four guys all the time,” he joked afterward.

Just after the penalty expired, Henkel got his first tally of the night, blasting a slap shot through a now-dazed Holman. The freshman was then pulled from the net by Colony coach Dale Mattson in favor of senior Joe Nyberg as the period came to a close.

&#8220I didn't think he was doing that bad, but with that many (goals) going in that quick, I felt like I had to change something,” Mattson said after the game.

Houston didn't let up in the second period, getting two quick goals from Henkel and Styers in the period's opening minute.

On the verge of getting blown out of the building, Colony then started to fight back.

Ryan Weeks got the Knights on the scoreboard with a wrist shot past Houston goaltender Will Bauchenstein, a tally that seemed to get Colony's skates moving a bit faster.

&#8220We got down five goals and all of the sudden we decided we wanted to play,” Mattson said.

Weeks set up Colony's second goal of the game when his wraparound try with Colony on the power play squirted in front of the net and onto the stick of Andrew Bargelski, who buried the puck to cut the lead to 5-2.

Bargelski's ability to find the puck off the rebound again paid dividends late in the period, as he again cleaned up a Weeks rebound to get the Knights within two.

Following the game, Henkel admitted that the Hawks didn't come out with the kind of intensity they should have against Colony, which Houston beat 5-0 earlier this season.

&#8220I think we thought it would be easier than it was,” he said.

Colony's comeback bid was shut down just 22 seconds later, however, when Houston's Kaleb Westfall took the pass from Seth Grove and hammered home a beautiful slap shot from the point that deflected off Nyberg's stick and into the top of the net for the final goal of the game.

Neither team scored in the third period, one that saw Holman reinserted back into net for the Knights. The freshman redeemed himself for his early struggles, picking up four saves in the period to finish with 12 on the evening against 15 shots - the same numbers Bauchenstein finished with for the Hawks.

&#8220I think he's definitely improving,” Mattson said of his freshman goaltender.

Mattson said he was proud of the way his team battled back in a game that could have turned ugly.

&#8220As long as we're working hard and trying to improve, that's all we can do,” he said.

As for the Hawks, coach Styers said he believes the game showed his team that they can't take anyone for granted as they make a push for a state title in Houston's final year at the 3A level of competition.

&#8220We've got to figure out how to play three whole periods of hockey,” Styers said.

He also said he hopes his players learned their lesson about sleeping in.

&#8220You can't wake up way late in the afternoon and then come and try to play hockey,” he said.

Contact Matt Tunseth at

352-2265 or matt.tunseth@

frontiersman.com.