South Anchorage wins Big Lake Lions hockey tourney

When the bracket was built for the tournament they host every year, the Houston Hawks were not handed any favors. Houston shared the top half of the bracket with a pair of undefeated teams and Houston was in reach of knocking both of them off.

Two nights after Houston beat previously undefeated North Pole, South Anchorage stayed unbeaten with a 4-2 win over the Hawks during the championship game of the Big Lake Lions Classic Saturday at the Menard Arena in Wasilla.

South’s Rydon Scott scored an insurance goal with 45 seconds left in regulation, after the Wolverines grasped to a 3-2 lead for about 10 minutes of the third period. Trenton Huber cut South’s lead to a goal with an unassisted tally at the 10:37 mark of the final period. Daniel Kuzmin put the Hawks on the scoreboard late in the first to tie the game at 1.

South outshot Houston 28-24.

Houston started its tourney with a 3-1 win over North Pole. Carter Cook scored a pair of goals for Houston, and Huber added a goal. Dylan Shaffer made 22 saves.

The Hawks also beat Bartlett 4-2. Andrey Efimov scored twice. Huber and John Natekin also scored. Houston finished with 50 shots on goal.

Colony finished third in the eight-team tourney with a 7-1 victory over Delta. Tristan Sawyer and Dean Yeager scored two goals each. Austin Fangmann and Logan Zerones also scored.

Colony beat Juneau-Douglas 5-1 in the first round. Sawyer scored twice. Richie Hoglin, Thaddeous Gasper and Paxton Eckstein also scored.

The Knights suffered a 7-1 loss to South in the semis. Charles Willoughby scored the lone Colony goal.

Wasilla was sixth in the tourney. North Pole edged the Warriors 4-3 in the fourth-place game. Evan Owen, Dylan Mead and Branson Hagel had the Wasilla goals.

Elijah Kelley used an 18-save shutout to lead Wasilla to an 8-0 win over Juneau-Douglas on the second day of the tourney. Chase Malstrom and Elijah Barcelona tallied two goals each. Mead, Brecken Styers, Matthew DeMaster and Gavin Blaylock also scored.

South beat the Warriors 3-1 in the first round. Mead scored the WHS goal.

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