Quick start sparks WHS

WASILLA — The Wasilla Warriors hit the ice for their first game in eight days Thursday. It marked Wasilla’s longest break, so far, during the 2012-13 season, and it came at a pretty good time.

Aided by the extra rest, Wasilla enjoyed a quick start with two goals during the opening four minutes of regulation and held on for a 3-2 North Star Conference victory over the Soldotna Stars Thursday at the Brett Memorial Ice Arena in Wasilla.

“It was definitely positive for us,” Wasilla head coach Bill Sturdevant said of the break for the Warriors, which came before a stretch that includes three conference games in as many days. “We were able to work on some things, get some intensity back in practice. Any time you get that much time to work on things, it helps. I think it showed tonight.”

Troy Verplanke and Brett Keene stuck for the Warriors during a 1 minute and 43 second stretch of the first four minutes of play.

Soldotna head coach Aaron Swanson said he felt that was certainly the difference in the game.

“They came out pretty hard, and we came out pretty flat,” Swanson said.

Verplanke knocked in the rebound of Blake Carricaburu’s shot from the point to give the Warriors the early advantage. Less than two minutes later, Keene took a long pass at the SoHi blue line, slipped away from the Stars defense and buried the breakaway goal to stretch Wasilla’s lead to a pair of goals.

“It was a beautiful pass, and he got that opportunity,” Sturdevant said of Keene. “That’s something he’s worked on over the years, catching those long passes. He likes going on the break. He’s put in a lot of work catching those passes and being strong on the stick. He was able to cash it.”

Soldotna’s Jarrett Urban, who bagged both of SoHi’s goals, cut Wasilla’s lead in half halfway through the period.

As Soldotna skated on the power play, Kenny Griffen threw a puck on net from the point. Urban stood strong in front of the Wasilla goal and knocked a puck in.

“I think we came out ready to play in the first five minutes, but I felt like we kind of backed off a little bit after we got that 2-0 lead,” Sturdevant said. “We took some unnecessary penalties and let Soldotna kind of creep back in.”

Swanson said it was a different game after that early chunk of the first period, but Wasilla had done its damage.

“We kind of jumped back in it, and it was back and forth after that,” Swanson said. “If we came out and matched their intensity in the first period, the first half of that first period, and kept them off the board, it could have easily gone our way. It’s tough to say. Credit to them.”

Cooper Hanson scored on the power play midway through the second period to give the Warriors the 3-1 lead. Hanson’s tally, a hard-angle shot from the bottom of the left wing circle, turned about to be a big insurance goal for the Warriors. Urban scored again with 36 seconds left in the period.

“Cooper’s power-play goal, that was big for us,” Sturdevant said.

Soldotna continues its three-day road trip through the Valley with a match against Palmer tonight at 7 p.m. at the MTA Events Center. Wasilla hosts Kenai tonight at the Brett in Wasilla.

Wasilla 3, Soldotna 2

Thursday, Brett Arena

First period — 1. Wasilla- Verplanke (Carricaburu, Apangalook) 12:56; 2. Wasilla- Keene (Reeves, Hanson) 11:13; 3. Soldotna- Urban (Griffen) pp 8:25.

Second period — 4. Wasilla- Hanson (Harren, Cook) pp 5:13; 5. Soldotna- Urban (unassisted) 0:36.

Third period — no scoring.

Shots on goal: Soldotna 7-10-4-21, Wasilla 9-5-4—18; Saves: Soldotna- Harvey 7-4-4—15, Wasilla- Massie 6-9-4—19.