Valley teams skate to victory on first day of Alaska Army National Guard Stars and Stripes Showdown

Mat-Su teams were a perfect 4-0 during the first day of the Alaska Army National Guard Stars and Stripes Showdown hosted by Palmer High School.

Colony, Wasilla, Houston and the host Moose all skated to victories at the MTA Events Center Thursday in Palmer.

Jeremy Horacek scored a pair of goals to lead Palmer to a 3-0 win over North Pole. Matias Broughton also scored. Gavin Gore bagged a pair of assists. Joshua Horecek recorded the 11-save shutout in the Palmer net.

Wasilla skated to an 8-3 win over Juneau-Douglas. Austin Petersen, Brenna Hagel, Branson Starheim, Karson McGrew, Brett Woolcott, Dalton Hickey, Easton McRee and Sayer Sanders scored for the Warriors. Phillip Brevogel made 11 saves in the Wasilla net.

Colony beat Soldotna 5-1. Kai Dixon, Drake Gallagher, Jacob Ross, Luke Holman and Tyler Keefe scored for the Knights. Malaki Mukabaaya made eight saves.

Daniel Mateev scored twice to lead Houston to a 3-1 win over Kenai. Afanasy Efimov also scored. Ari Burnside made eight saves in the win.

The Showdown is a three-day, 12-team event that continues through Saturday.

On Friday, Houston plays North Pole at 10 a.m., Wasilla meets Dimond at 4 p.m., Palmer is against West Valley at 6 p.m. and Colony takes on Kenai at 8 p.m.

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