Warriors clinch second

JEREMIAH BARTZ/Sports Editor

WASILLA - Not much separated the Wasilla Warriors and Colony Knights this season. In their first two meetings, Colony narrowly squeezed past Wasilla - beating the Warriors by two goals early in the season and just one score in a mid-season overtime win. And on Saturday, not much separated the two programs for the first two periods.

But Wasilla exploded for three third-period goals and earned a 4-1 win over the Knights at the Curtis C. Menard II Memorial Ice Arena.

Track Palin, Joel Kenworthy and Jeremiah Dargis each scored in the final period for Wasilla and the Warrior defense held Colony to just four shots in the finals 15 minutes of play.

"It was just a total team effort down the stretch," Wasilla head coach Eric Troisi said.

With the win, Wasilla claimed second place in the North Star Conference standings, and more importantly - the Warriors earned a first-round bye in the North Star Conference championship tournament this week.

"We had a hard year, but we kept improving and kept improving," Troisi said. "This (win) is nice going into regionals."

After a scoreless first period, Andrew Tumbleson gave Wasilla a 1-0 lead midway through the second. Tumbleson took a Jordan Ingalls pass and put the puck past Colony netminder Tyrel Henkel.

With just less than two minutes left in second, Colony senior Scott Beckman scored on the power play to tie the score at 1-1.

Ronnie Walker won the battle of two all-region caliber goaltenders. The Warrior netminder stopped 33 of 34 shots including all 19 shots he faced in the first period.

Henkel recorded 23 saves.

The Warriors close the regular season with a 7-2-1 record in North Star play. Wasilla finished 8-10-1 overall. Third-place Colony finished just a half-game behind Wasilla, at 7-3-0 in the conference. The Knights stand at 11-6-1 overall.

Colony faces Palmer in the first-round of the region championship, scheduled for 7:15 p.m., Thursday at the Palmer Ice Arena. Wasilla faces the Palmer-Colony winner in the second round, scheduled for 7:15 p.m. on Friday.

The region championship game is scheduled for Saturday at 4:45 p.m.

Wasilla 13, Palmer 0

The Warriors scored six first-period goals and skated to a 13-0 win over the Moose at the Palmer Ice Arena on Friday.

Palin led the Warriors with a hat trick, while Tumbleson, Tanner Dutcher and Ansel Sandone added two goals each.

Houston claims Great Land Conference title

With a 6-0 win over the Homer Mariners on Friday, the Houston Hawks sealed the Great Land Conference regular season title.

Aaron Burleson and Wade Williams each scored two goals to lead Houston. Nathan Englund and Nick Jacobs also scored.

Houston earned a 6-1 win on Saturday to record the sweep of Homer.

Henry Orth and Larry Kincaid scored power play goals to lead Houston.

Frontiersman reporter Bob Martinson contributed to this story