Prep hockey: Three teams within reach of conference title

JEREMIAH BARTZ/ Frontiersman sports editor

There is just one weekend remaining in the regular season of the North Star Conference hockey schedule, and there still is a lot to be decided.

Four teams have 13 or more points in region play, creating the most competitive final stretch of the regular season the conference has seen in several years.

&#8220There's a lot of parity within the league,” Kenai head coach Nate Keil said after the Kardinals' 3-2 loss to Colony at the Palmer Ice Arena last week. &#8220It's anyone's region.”

That win was the Knights' seventh Region III victory of the season, and pushed Colony ahead of Kenai in the standings. Wasilla is currently in first place with 18 points and one game to go, Colony stands at second with 15 points and two games left, Kenai is in third with 14 points and two games remaining and Homer is in fourth with 13 points and one game on the schedule.

Right now Wasilla, Colony and Kenai all have the potential to grab, at least, a share of the regular season title, and the top spot in the next week's conference championships hosted by Soldotna High School at Peninsula Sports Center. The regular season champion also earns a first-round bye in the region tournament.

With a win over Colony on Saturday, Wasilla would finish the regular season in first place with 20 points. Colony needs wins over Palmer tonight and Wasilla tomorrow to finish in first place. Kenai would need much more help to grab a piece of first place. The best the Kardinals can hope for is a tie at the top of the conference, and that would require two Kenai wins, a Colony loss to Palmer and a Colony win over Wasilla.

That would give Kenai and Wasilla 18 points each. If it did come to a tie, the first tiebreaker would be head-to-head competition, Wasilla activities director Joe Gardner said. Wasilla is 2-0 against Kenai this season.

Before losing to Wasilla in last season's region championship final game, Kenai had pretty much owned the conference for several seasons.

&#8220Four years ago is when they really picked it up and started playing well,” Colony head coach Dale Mattson said. &#8220Before that it was SOHI, who pretty much owned it down there. And we owned it up here.”

But last weekend Kenai pretty much took themselves out of any real contention for first place with losses to Wasilla and Colony.

Palmer (1-10-0) is currently in seventh place. With a win over the Knights, Palmer could move head of Skyview in the standings. The Panthers (1-8-0) host Kenai today, and travel to Homer Saturday.