Warriors cap regular season with win

WASILLA — Regardless of what happened against rival Colony Friday night, the Wasilla Warriors knew they’d be opening the upcoming North Star Conference Championships with a first-round date against Kenai Central.

Even though their postseason seed wouldn’t change, the Warriors still wanted to build some momentum heading into the tourney, which starts Thursday in Soldotna.

Wasilla used a pair of third-period goals to score a 3-2 win over the Knights at the Curtis C. Menard II Memorial Ice Arena.

“We knew either way it wasn’t going to change,” Wasilla head coach Bill Sturdevant said. “That being said, we still wanted to make sure we went in and played like it was our last game.”

Wasilla improved to 5-4-1 in NSC play with the victory, locked up the fourth seed and now looks ahead to a first-round matchup with fifth-seeded Kenai (3-6-1). While the game didn’t impact the Warriors, it was costly to Colony. The Knights fell to 6-3-1 and out of the running for one of the top seeds in the NSC. Soldotna (8-2-0) clinched the No. 1 seed on Friday with a 6-1 win over Kenai. With the loss, Colony finished the regular-season in a tie with rival Palmer at 6-3-1. Palmer’s 1-0-1 record against the Knights during the regular season give the Moose the No. 2 seed. Soldotna and Palmer earn first-round byes with the top seed. Colony will face sixth-seeded Homer in the first round Thursday.

Colony was held to just a single shot in each of the first two periods, but had 10 shots on goal during the third.

“They have us a hard push at the end,” Sturdevant said.

Chancie Hanson and Colton Fletcher scored third-period goals within a 68-second span in the third to give the Warriors the 3-1 lead, but the Knights battled back.

Colony took advantage of a 5 on 3 situation late and cashed in with a Kevin Hartley power-play goal. The Knights also had other chances to tie the game.

“Colony had a lot of good chances,” Sturdevant said. “Fortunately, we were able to hold them off with our special teams on the penalty kill.”

Brandon Trush scored for Wasilla to break a scoreless tie midway through the second period. Colony’s Jonathon Boyer tied the game for the Knights early in the third.

Wasilla outshot Colony 27-12 in the game. Forrest Savel made 24 saves for the Knights.

Wasilla 3, Colony 2

Friday, Menard Arena

First period — no scoring.

Second period — 1. Wasilla- Trush (Fletcher, Cooley) 8:39.

Third period — 2. Colony- Boyer (unassisted) 12:32; 3. Wasilla- Ch. Hanson (Keene) 4:32; 4. Wasilla- Fletcher (unassisted) 3:24; 5. Colony- Hartley (Naylor, Svoboda) 1:36.

Shots on goal: Wasilla 6-11-10—27, Colony 1-1-10—12; Saves: Wasilla- Massie 1-1-8—10, Colony- Savel 6-10-8—24.