Warriors prevail against Valley rival

WASILLA — The Wasilla Warriors carried a 4-0 lead into the third period. But after rival Colony struck for three goals in just about four minutes, Wasilla head coach Jake Dargis called a time out.

“We called the timeout to settle them down again. Teenagers get a little bit emotional at times. We wanted to get out mindset back, get back to what are message was. Keeping our legs moving and keeping possession as much as possible,” Dargis said.

Message received.

Wasilla added a late goal and held on for a 5-3 Mid-Alaska Conference win over the Knights Friday night at the Menard Arena.

After the timeout, Dargis said he immediately saw a calm in his players.

“We were able to put the right line out and have one good solid shift to set the tone back to the way we wanted it,” Dargis said.

Jacob Ross, Dane Jellich and Carson Lando each scored for Colony within a four-minute stretch early in the third to erase a four-goal deficit and make it a one-score game.

“These rivalry games, there’s no giving up,” Dargis said. “They came out really hard in the third period and caught us in a little bit of a lull.”

Ross used a shot from the point on the tail end of a power play to put the Knights on the board with 11 minutes left in the game. Less than two minutes later, Jellich reached to the inside edge of the right wing circle to knock his own rebound and cut Wasilla’s lead in half. With just more than seven minutes left, Lindo popped the puck into the upper shelf to make it a 4-3 game.

“They made it interesting,” Dargis said.

With less than a minute left, Garrison Holler scored right off a face off in the Colony defensive zone to give Wasilla the 5-3 lead.

“That’s an exhale moment,” Dargis said.

Wasilla jumped out to a quick lead. Dylan Massie, Brendan Woolcott and Dylan Harbour scored in the first period for the Warriors. Massie gave Wasilla the 1-0 advantage during the first three minutes of play. Dargis said Wasilla’s third line sparked the Warriors early with energy on the ice.

Troy Randall scored in the second period to give Wasilla a 4-0 lead.

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