Prep hockey preview- Wasilla

JEREMIAH BARTZ/ Frontiersman sports editor

WASILLA - Last season, the Wasilla Warrior hockey squad did something a Valley team had not done in several years - win the Region III tournament.

By losing just one senior from that championship squad and returning 14 upperclassmen, the Warr-iors are not looking to settle for anything less than another region championship and a few wins in the 4A state tournament.

Depth will certainly be a key in the success of the Warriors during the 2005-06 season. Wasilla can field a full lineup of 20, and has 23 players who have seen varsity action already this season.

By looking at the roster, there is not a noticeable weakness in any of the three big pieces to the Warrior puzzle. Wasilla has the skill to put the puck in the net, and the talent to keep the other team off the scoreboard.

Senior Tanner Dutcher (12 goals, 19 assists) and junior Track Palin (13 goals, 17 assists) each scored 30 or more points last season. Tough senior Alex Gittlein, hard-working junior Carl Brent and skilled junior Jeremiah Dargis are among leaders at the blueline.

Dargis (4 goals, 17 assists) and Brent (6 goals, five assists) hit double-digits in points last season, as did senior Eric Zehdner (5 goals, 8 assists) and sophomore Adam Friese (7 goals, 8 assists).

Senior Joel Kenworthy tallied 11 points in just 14 games last year. Junior Jordan Ingalls averaged a point per game in seven contests.

Defensively, the toughness and leadership abilities of Gittlein i s important for the Warriors. Those two attributes are the reasons the senior will serve as team captain this season.

The Warriors also return one of the top goaltenders of the North Star Conference, Ronnie Walker. This is his third year as the Wasilla starting netminder. Last he posted a 3.33 goals against average, and stopped nine out of every 10 shots.

&#8220Overall, we have a nice team,” Wasilla head coach Eric Troisi said. &#8220People are going to find their roles and realize how they can help the team in different ways.”

Troisi has been building this squad since he first took the reins of the Wasilla program prior to the 2002-03 season. Troisi's eight seniors first took the ice for the Warriors as freshman in his first season at WHS.

Many of those players - Gittlein and Dutcher, as well as forwards James Elkins, Eric Zehnder, Jordan Troisi, Arlin Welch, Joel Kenworthy and Ansel Sandone - saw significant ice time in varsity action for the Warriors during their freshman season. Troisi has a strong senior class. But that's only the start. There are also six juniors and a talented group of 12 sophomores.

&#8220We have the group to make a good run, but I think with next year's team we'll be able to make a run too,” Troisi said.

Wasilla is off to a 3-1-1 start, and has out-scored opponents 42-9 in its first five games. This weekend, the Warriors are on a three-day tour of Fairbanks. Wasilla faced North Pole on Thursday, sees Lathrop today and faces West Valley Saturday.