South powers past Moose

PALMER — After skating 15 minutes worth of back-and-forth scoreless hockey, the Palmer Moose headed into the first intermission feeling fairly good about their play against South Anchorage, a perennial Cook Inlet Conference power.

But in the second, the Wolverines were able to strike against the Moose.

Cameron Klatt scored a pair of goals and the Wolverines outshot Palmer 16-1 during the middle frame en route to a 4-0 win over the Moose in the season-opener for both teams at the Palmer Ice Arena on Wednesday.

“I thought we worked hard, but they’re South Anchorage, and they’re deep and they just keep coming,” Palmer head coach Brad Hanson said after the loss.

Most of South’s 16 shots in the period came with the Wolverines skating on the power play. South had four power-play chances in the second period, and skated with the two-man advantage twice.

With a 1-0 lead, a pair of Palmer penalties led to a 53-second 5-on-3 chance for the Wolverines. Almost immediately after killing that South opportunity, the Moose were whistled for another call. That led to a 62-second 5-on-3 chance for South.

“It wore us out, but it really set the tone for the whole period,” Hanson said.

Klatt scored his second goal of the period on that 5-on-3 chance to give the Wolverines the two-goal lead.

“They handled the puck well, (and) in the second period, we struggled,” Hanson said.

The Moose also had to kill off a four-minute double-minor in the third period.

Palmer freshman goaltender Ashton Good made 41 saves during his debut with the Moose.

“I thought he played really well,” Hanson said of Good, who stopped each of the 15 attempts he faced in the first period.

Hanson was also pleased with Palmer’s play on the blue line.

“I thought the defense played well in front of the net,” Hanson said. “There were a lot of sticks in shooting lanes, sticks on pucks.”

Klatt gave the Wolverines the lead midway through the first with a goal set up by South captain Sage Welch.

Welch skated the puck into the Moose defensive zone and sent a pass in front of the crease to Klatt, who put a shot into the right side of the Moose net. About three minutes later, with the Wolverines on the two-man advantage, Luke Nokelby threw in a shot from the point. Zachary Aregood deflected the Nokelby attempt and Good made the save, but Klatt was in the right position to hammer in the rebound.

South assistant captain Kyle Simmons gave the Wolverines a 3-0 lead with a shorthanded goal in the third. After Steven Orizotti skated the puck into the Palmer defensive zone, Simmons picked up a loose puck and wrapped a shot around the backside of the Palmer goal and into the Moose net. Zack Morris pushed his team’s lead to four goals when he followed his own shot with a rebound goal.

South goalie Trevor Gutierrez made 17 saves to earn the shutout.

Overall, Hanson said he saw good things from his team.

“There were a couple of breakdowns and they capitalized,” Hanson said. “But I’m not dissatisfied with how we played. I thought the guys worked as hard as they possibly could.”

Palmer hosts rival Colony Saturday at 5 p.m. at the Palmer Ice Arena.

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com. Follow him at Twitter at twitter.com/matsu_sports.

South Anchorage 4, Palmer 0

Wednesday, Palmer Ice Arena

Palmer 0-0-0—0

South 0-2-2—4

First period — no scoring.

Second period — 1. South- Klatt (Welch) 7:54; 2. South- Klatt (Aregood, Nokelby) pp 5:04.

Third period — 3. South- Simmons (unnassisted) sh 6:36; 4. South- Morris (Lindberg) 1:07.

Shots on goal: South 15-16-14—45, Palmer 7-1-9—17; Saves: South- T. Gutierrez 7-1-9—17, Palmer- A. Good 15-14-12—41; Penalties: South 8-for-16, Palmer- 9-for-23.