South blanks Warriors

WASILLA — Before Thursday, it had been more than three weeks since the last time the Wasilla Warriors skated into a game. But not only did the Warriors have to kick some rust off the skates, Wasilla had to do so while facing perennial power South Anchorage.

While Wasilla was coming off a long hockey hiatus, South — which had already played a game after the long holiday break — used three second-period goals to skate to a 6-0 nonconference win over the Warriors on Thursday.

Even though three weeks off is a large chunk of time during the season, Wasilla head coach Bill Sturdevant wasn’t ready to use that as an excuse.

“We have to do it,” Sturdevant said about shaking off that rust. “We knew at the beginning of the season we were going to play South. It’s not like it was a big surprise.”

Wasilla did skate into the game shorthanded, missing a top forward and goalie Zach Eastham. With Eastham out due to injury, freshman Rhys Jones stepped in to make his first career start.

“It was trial by fire, throwing him out there for his first game against South,” Sturdevant said. “But I thought he did well, stood in there and made some good saves.”

Jones stopped 19 shots in his Wasilla varsity debut. South was only able to slip one shot by the Wasilla goalie in the first, but that came 21 seconds into regulation.

Assistant captain Kyle Simmons, who finished with a goal and two assists in the win, snuck a hard-angle shot past Jones just seconds after the opening face-off. But Jones was able to keep the Wolverines off the board for the remainder of the period.

“He played excellent the remainder of the first period,” Sturdevant said. “The first one snuck up on him.”

Senior Collin Olsen recorded the hat trick and freshman Cameron Klatt scored twice to help the Wolverines improve to 12-1-1 overall. Senior Trevor Gutierrez earned the 16-save shutout.

Wasilla thought it had cracked Gutierrez in the second period. With about four minutes left in the frame, forward Eric Johnson sent a sharp centering pass from the right wing corner to Chancie Hanson, who was parked in front of the net. The puck was knocked into the goal, but the score was quickly disallowed by the referees.

Sturdevant said the puck was allegedly kicked in the net and waved off.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/matsu_sports.

South Anchorage 6, Wasilla 0

Thursday, Menard Arena

First period — 1. South- Simmons (Onstott) 14:39.

Second period — 2. South- Olsen (Simmons, Bain) 13:48; 3. South- Klatt (DesLauries, Orizotti) 1:59; 4. South- Olsen (Simmons, Welch) 0:41.

Third period — 5. South- Olsen (Bain) 11:25; 6. South- Klatt (Geerin, Aregood) pp 7:39.

Shots on goal: South 7-9-9—25, Wasilla 8-5-3—16; Saves: South- Gutierrez 8-5-3—16, Wasilla- Jones 6-6-7—19.