Valley battle

PALMER — The Wasilla Warriors seem to have a knack for hurting opponents with their special teams.

The Warriors scored twice on the power play and used the penalty kill to prevent Palmer from staging any type of a comeback during Wasilla’s 6-2 win over the Moose at the Palmer Ice Arena on Friday.

Senior Adam Friese and freshman Trent Wohlers each posted power-play tallies during Wasilla’s three-goal second period to help the Warriors improve to 5-5 on the season.

But while the power-play goals were key, killing penalties proved to be crucial. The Warriors were tagged with 10 penalties during the tense battle between the two Valley rivals, and one of those calls was a five-minute major. Palmer also had a pair of 5-on-3 opportunities in the game, and skated with the two-man advantage for two minutes in the third period.

Palmer junior Zack Richards did slip a deflection into the Wasilla net on the tail end of the five-minute major, but that was the only time the Moose were able to strike with the advantage.

“We buckled down and we killed (the penalties). That’s what won us the game,” Friese said. “If they’d of got something together, got it going on the power play, we’d of definitely been in trouble.”

Palmer finished the game 1-for-8 with the advantage.

Despite the Warriors average of about 18 penalty minutes per contest through the first 10 games of the year, Palmer is just the fourth team to post a power-play goal against Wasilla this season.

“It’s so frustrating to keep getting penalties, especially in a tough game like this,” Friese said. “But [the play of penalty kill unit] was definitely critical for our team.”

Senior Herbie Mansavage led the Warriors with two goals and an assist in the win. Wohlers scored twice for Wasilla and junior Dylan Troisi dealt three assists.

Senior Ben Barber also scored for WHS.

Barber’s goal was part of a six-second scoring burst that allowed Wasilla’s lead to balloon from 2-1 to 4-1 early in the second period.

With just more than 10 minutes remaining in the second, Friese snapped a quick wrist shot past Palmer netminder Jonas Naegele. Six seconds later Barber put a puck into the upper shelf of the Palmer net.

Palmer junior Michael Hanson cut Wasilla’s lead to 2-1 when he ripped a short slap shot past Wasilla goalkeeper Jesse Hugli midway through the first period. Following a pass from sophomore Tyler Isaacs, Hanson stopped short of the right circle and put the puck in the far side of the net, just inside the post.

Following the game, Palmer head coach Brad Hanson was not completely unhappy with the play of his squad. But when facing a Wasilla team with an overall advantage in both depth and experience, Hanson said the Moose simply made too many mistakes.

“We don’t have a lot of depth, so we have to play smart. We have to stay focused,” the Moose head coach said. “I was happy with a couple things. We battled; we worked hard.”

Palmer dropped to 7-3 overall and 1-1 in North Star Conference play with the loss.

Wasilla 6, Palmer 2

Friday, Palmer Ice Arena

Wasilla 2-3-1—6

Palmer 1-0-1—2

First period — 1. Wasilla- Mansavage (Finch, Turner) 11:23, 2. Wasilla- Wohlers (A. Friese, Troisi) 9:03, 3. Palmer- M. Hanson (Isaacs) 6:28.

Second period — 4. Wasilla- A. Friese (Wohlers, Troisi) pp 10:38, 5. Wasilla- Barber (Mansavage) 10:32, 6. Wasilla- Wohlers (M. Friese, Troisi) pp 3:22.

Third period — 7. Palmer- Richards (M. Hanson, Wright) pp 14:31, 8. Wasilla- Mansavage (Finch, Turner) 11:30.

Shots on goal: Wasilla 11-12-12—25, Palmer 4-2-5—11; Saves: Wasilla- Hugli 3-2-4—9, Palmer- Naegele 9-9-11—29; Penalties: Wasilla 10-for-25, Palmer 8-for-26; Power plays: Wasilla 2-for-5, Palmer 1-for-8.

Colony’s clash with

Eagle River canceled

A nonconference contest between the Colony Knights and Eagle River Wolves scheduled for Saturday was canceled. The Knights are attempting to reschedule game for a later date this season.

The game would have marked the second meeting of the season for the two teams. In November, Eagle River scored as time expired to edge Colony 4-3 in the consolation semifinals of the Curtis C. Menard II Memorial Ice Arena.

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