Stars stun Knights

WASILLA — Tournament seeds for the upcoming North Star Conference Championships are far from set, but the Soldotna Stars are hoping to parlay success on the road into an added advantage at home.

Soldotna skated a step closer to securing a top seed and a first-round bye in the upcoming region tourney, which the Stars will host at the Soldotna Sports Center, by grabbing a 2-1 overtime win over the Colony Knights at the Curtis C. Menard II Memorial Ice Arena in Wasilla Friday night.

Dalton Pearson chased down a loose puck and scored a breakaway goal 40 seconds into overtime to give the Stars the win and help Soldotna improve to 6-1-0 in North Star play. Colony stood at 5-2-1 after the loss.

In the opening minute of the tiebreaker, Pearson jumped on the puck in the neutral zone, raced up the left wing past the defense, crossed in front of the net and used a quick move to beat Colony goalie Forrest Savel.

“He’s a goal-scorer, one of our better players for sure,” Soldotna head coach Aaron Swanson said of Pearson. “I was excited to see he had a little bit of space to make a move. He made a move and buried it.”

Pearson tallied the game-winner in overtime, but Soldotna goalie Cody Harvey made arguably the play of the game in regulation.

Late in the third with the Stars on the power play, Colony forward Jonathon Boyer raced up the ice, broke free and lifted a shot toward the Soldotna net. Harvey went toward the ice on the Boyer breakaway, but at the last second, reached up and snatched the puck out of the air with his glove to kill the Colony opportunity. Harvey’s Soldotna teammates on the ice immediately celebrated with their goalie after the save.

“Harvey came up big. He doesn’t make that save, and it’s a whole different game for sure,” Swanson said. “The guys on the bench were excited and relieved at the same time. We we’re excited he made the save, but on the same token, we kind of dodged a bullet.”

Harvey’s save was representative of a night’s work for both goalies. Harvey stopped 14 shots, including a number of quality chances. Savel was stellar, making 28 saves.

“Both goalies were outstanding all night,” Swanson said. “The goaltending for both teams has been outstanding all season.”

Soldotna outshot the Knights 14-3 in the first, but it was the Knights who skated into the intermission with a 1-0 lead. Morgan McJimsey scored on the power play early in the period to give Colony the advantage. The defenseman stepped up to the top of the left wing circle and snapped a wrister into the SoHi net.

“The goal they got was a nice power-play goal,” Swanson said. “Good shot, good play on their part.”

Soldotna tied the score late in the second, scoring immediately off a face-off in the Colony end. Shayne Miller won the draw, shifted the puck to Nick Wrobel, who then found Ty Fenton anchored to the left of the Colony net. Fenton managed to slip a puck past Savel to knot the score at 1.

It’s the second meeting of the season between the NSC rivals, and the second overtime game of the series. Colony edged Soldotna in overtime in Soldotna in December.

“It was a battle, the same kind of game with played with them on the Peninsula,” Swanson said. “Same thing, went to overtime. Luckily, we were able to get the winner tonight.”

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

Soldotna 2, Colony 1 OT

Friday, Menard Arena

First period — 1. Colony- McJimsey (Boyer) pp 13:14.

Second period — 2. Soldotna- Fenton (Wrobel, S. Miller) 3:43.

Third period — no scoring.

Overtime — 3. Soldotna- Pearson (unassisted) 7:40.

Shots on goal: Soldotna 30, Colony 15; Saves: Soldotna- Harvey 14.