Sophomore caps Warrior rally in win over Service

WASILLA — Earlier this season, Wasilla defenseman William Harren was flat on the ice clutching his stick after a turnover in his own zone as the Soldotna Stars celebrated the game-winner during an overtime victory over the Warriors.

But on Tuesday, it was Harren who had the chance to celebrate. The sophomore used a third-period shot from the point to provide the game-winner during a 4-3 come-from-behind victory over the Service Cougars at the Curtis C. Menard II Memorial Ice Arena.

“It was nice to see William score that goal,” Wasilla head coach Bill Sturdevant said. “It was good redemption for him.”

After Mike Edwards won a face-off in the Service defensive zone, Harren took a pass from captain Chancie Hanson and blasted a shot from just inside the blue line to break a 3-3 tie and give the Warriors the go-ahead score. Sturdevant said it’s been nice to see the young blueliner continue to make progress and not be overly affected by the slight bobble against SoHi that led to the Stars’ overtime game-winner.

“Even though it was a funny bobble, that could really put a kid down, make it hard to come back from that,” Sturdevant said. “It’s nice to see him get away from that, get that monkey off his back.”

Hanson, Eric Johnson and Zach Korsmo also scored in the victory over a squad that played for the 2008 state title.

Conor Deal, Andrew Cummings and Jeremy Smith each scored for Service (13-4) to give the Cougars the 3-0 lead. But after playing poorly in the first, Sturdevant said he saw his team catch fire late in the second.

“I didn’t think we played really well in the first period. We didn’t have a lot of energy on the ice,” Sturdevant said.

Johnson scored shorthanded with just less than six minutes to go in the middle frame to give the Warriors life.

“That really sparked us,” Sturdevant said.

Korsmo then cut Service’s lead to 3-2, scoring on the power play with 1:24 left in the middle frame.

Wasilla carried that play into the third, and Hanson scored another Wasilla power-play goal 28 seconds into the final period.

“Going into that third period, our kids had a lot of confidence,” Sturdevant said.

Freshman Rhys Jones also stood out in the Wasilla net, stopping all 10 Service shots during the final period.

“Rhys played fantastic,” Sturdevant said.

Wasilla 4, Service 3

Tuesday, Menard Arena

First period — 1. Service- Deal (Brown, Smith) 9:24.

Second period — 2. Service- Cumming (unassisted) 13:28; 3. Service- Smith (unassisted) 11:35; 4. Wasilla- Johnson sh (Ch. Hanson, McRee) 5:51; 5. Wasilla- Korsmo (Edwards, Ransom-Cederholm) pp 1:24.

Third period — 6. Wasilla- Ch. Hanson (unassisted) pp 14:32; 7. Wasilla- Wil. Harren (Ch. Hanson, Edwards) 11:25.

Shots on goal: Service 9-5-10—24, Wasilla 4-14-7—25; Saves: Service- Fritz 4-12-5—21, Wasilla- Jones 8-3-10—21.

Bartlett 5, Colony 2

ANCHORAGE — Despite outshooting Bartlett 55-13 , the Colony Knights suffered a 5-2 loss to the Golden Bears in Anchorage on Tuesday. Daryl Belanger and Morgan McJimsey scored for the Knights.