Stars get past Moose in semis

WASILLA — A late push in each period Friday night has pushed the Soldotna Stars into the state tournament for the first time since 2009.

Soldotna scored all four of its goals during the final two minutes of a period, and the Stars posted a 4-2 win over Palmer during the North Star Conference Championships semifinals at the Menard Arena in Wasilla.

Kenny Griffen, Jacob O’Lena, Nick Wrobel and Dalton Pearson each scored for Soldotna. The O’Lena, Wrobel and Pearson goals came on special teams.

Griffen buried a breakaway goal at the 1:29 mark of the first period to give his team the 1-0 lead. The underclassman picked up the loose puck in transition, skated free between the circles and beat Palmer goalie Ashton Good glove-side to put the Stars on the scoreboard.

The Griffen goal came several minutes after each had high-quality chances on net. Palmer freshman Josh Myers trickled a puck just inches wide of an open piece of the Soldotna net, and mere seconds later, Wrobel broke free but couldn’t not slip a puck by Good’s blocker.

Palmer used a power-play goal to tie the game at 1 midway through the second frame, but the Stars struck twice during the final two minutes of the second period.

O’Lena slapped a shot from the point that took an odd bounce into the back of the Palmer net, and SoHi led 2-0. Wrobel added to that advantage with a short-handed tally 45 seconds later.

Pearson capped the scoring with a late power-play goal.

Jim Erickson tied the score at 1 for the Moose in the second. Freshman Christopher Dojka, from behind the net, put a shot off the side of the goal. The buck deflected and slid through the left wing circle. Erickson stepped up from his position on the blue line to slap a shot past SoHi goalie Cody Harvey.

Freshman Darren Fish recorded his second goal of the tourney when he scored early in the third period. Fish, who knocked in a rebound of a Luke Wright shot at the 13:33 mark, cut SoHi’s lead to 3-2.

Good marked 25 saves for the Moose, who were outshot 29-19.

The Soldotna win ended a nice run for Palmer in the tourney. The Moose entered the tourney as the No. 6 seed with a 1-8-1 record. Thursday, Palmer upset rival Colony 4-2 in the first round.

“You don’t measure your success as a team in wins and losses,” Palmer head coach Brad Hanson said after the win over Colony. “We’ve gotten better all year long, maintained a decent attitude, kept working, kept getting better.”

Soldotna 4, Palmer 2

NSC semifinals

Friday, Menard Arena

First period — 1. Soldotna- Griffen (unassisted) 1:29.

Second period — 2. Palmer- Erickson (Dojka) pp 7:48; 3. Soldotna- O’Lena (Pearson) pp 1:56; 4. Soldotna- Wrobel (unassisted) sh 1:11.

Third period — 5. Palmer- Fish (Wright) 11:33; 6. Soldotna- Pearson (Wrobel) pp 1:32.

Shots on goal: Soldotna 7-10-12—29, Palmer 8-5-6—19; Soldotna- Harvey 8-4-5—17, Palmer- Good 6-8-11—25.