State hockey tourney: Houston goes for four-peat

Feb. 9, 2007

By Jeremiah Bartz/ Frontiersman

WASILLA - This weekend the Houston Hawks will be looking for fourth.

Not fourth place, but their fourth-straight small-schools state hockey title.

Houston is two wins from doing something no other program done since the ASAA introduced the state hockey tournaments. The Hawks quest for the four-peat starts with a semifinal match against Delta Junction tonight at 5:30 p.m. at the Menard Memorial Ice Arena in Wasilla.

Houston head coach Mike Styers said conversation has not necessarily been centered around the four-peat, but his players are well aware.

&#8220Not to jinx it,” he said. &#8220But we get to the championship game, and it definitely will be something that is brought up.”

Houston has three seniors who could become part of the first group in the history of ASAA-sanctioned prep hockey in Alaska to win four titles in four years. Forward Chad Lipse and defensmen Dusty Spidal and Kaleb Westfall have each ended each of their first three years with a state title.

Two other seniors, forwards Seth Grove and Aaron Burleson started skating for the Hawks as sophomores, and are looking for their third-straight titles.

Houston has won the last three small-school state titles and five of the last six. The Hawks have been the top seed in the 3A tournament each year since 2001. The only blemish during that stretch came in 2003, when Monroe Catholic upset the Hawks 2-1.

The Hawks have rolled through the tournament toward titles in the last few years. Last season Houston posted a devastating 13-1 win over Kenny Lake.

Prior to a modest 4-1 win over Homer in the 2005 title game, the Hawks beat Delta 9-5 to win the crown in 2004.

Delta, winners of the small-school state title twice in seven tries, is Houston's first obstacle in its title hunt.

Houston beat the Huskies fairly easily in two meetings this season, but Styers has warned his team that those wins were posted quite a while ago.

&#8220The big thing with Delta is we played them early in the year before they got a lot of ice time,” he said. &#8220I try to stress, they are not going to be the same team we saw two-and-a-half months ago. They're a much improved team.”

Delta earned the tournament's fourth-seed after finishing 9-5-1 during the regular season.

Houston (15-0-0) is the top seed.

Second-seed Glennallen (11-2-2) faces third-seed Monroe (10-4-1) at 1 p.m. today.

Styers said of the three other teams in the tournament, Glennallen may be the toughest.

&#8220They play hard, and they play physical,” Styers said.

The Hawks feature strength on offense, defense and in goal.

Key to the Hawks on the offensive end of the ice, Styers said, is the play of junior forwards Jake Henkel and Dillon Styers.

Henkel currently leads the squad with 58 points, while Styers is close behind with 56.

Henkel and Styers anchor Houston's top two lines, and Mike Styers said, the way those two players perform directly correlates with how the team does.

&#8220The other kids feed off them,” the head coach said.

Henkel and Styers are two of three Hawks with 50 or more points. Burleson has also topped the 50-point mark.

The Houston defensive unit features Westfall, a player with more than 40 points.

While the Hawks can boast experience on offense and defense, the one player yet to play in that big game is goaltender Will Rauchenstein. Styers said his rookie goalie endured the early-season growing pains when the bulk of Houston's schedule was made up with large-school teams. But since the holiday break, the play of Rauchenstein has stood out.

Styers said the Houston netminder also stopped eight of 10 shots against large-school snipers during the state tournament's skills competition on Thursday. And that's something that could further boost the freshman's confidence.

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.