Valley teams preparing for a tough region tournament

WASILLA — This weekend, during the North Star Conference Championships in Soldotna, six teams will battle for two automatic berths to the Division I state tournament. And the consensus is, at least one deserving of a trip to state will be left at home.

“There are three legitimate teams that should be playing in the state tournament,” Colony head coach Jamie Smith said after a 3-2 victory over Wasilla Jan. 26 that clinched the Knights the No. 1 seed in the NSC Championships, which start Thursday at the Soldotna Sports Complex.

Smith is referring to second-seeded Homer, third-seeded Wasilla and his top-seeded Knights. But coaches have also seed improvement in the conference, top to bottom, during the second half of the season. The North Star enjoyed a wild final day to its regular season. Wasilla skated to a 6-6 tie with rival Palmer. Kenai edged Soldotna 6-5 in overtime to clinch the fifth seed in the conference. The results were drastically different than the first meeting of the season in each rivalry. Wasilla blasted Palmer 10-0 in December. Kenai beat up SoHi 10-1 in November.

Palmer head coach Dean Wilson said there are some strong teams in the conference.

“Homer, they’re going to be very difficult to beat. Colony is always tough,” Wilson said.

Wilson said even the conference’s No. 6 season could be a difficult matchup.

“I think Soldotna is going to be tough,” Wilson said. “They’re a different team from the start of the season to where they are now.”

Both Wilson’s Moose and Wasilla will skate during the first round on Thursday. Palmer plays fourth-seeded Kenai at 5 p.m.

“We’ve really done well against Kenai,” Wilson said. “I like our matchup against them. But we’re not going to take them lightly for sure. They’re a good team.”

Wasilla meets SoHi Thursday at 7:30 p.m.

Top-seeded Colony will face the Palmer-Kenai winner Friday at 5 p.m. in the semifinals. Homer will face the Wasilla-SoHi winner in the other semifinal Friday at 7:30 p.m. The single-elimination tournament concludes with the NSC title game Saturday at 3:45 p.m.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.