Warriors win, break streak

WASILLA -- Before Saturday, the last time Wasilla defeated Colony, Warrior captain Andrew Tumbleson was in the fifth grade, Wasilla sophomore Jordan Troisi was beginning the fourth grade and Warrior head coach Eric Troisi was behind the Colony bench.

But after six years of winless hockey against the crosstown rival Knights, the Warriors broke the streak with a 4-1 win over Colony at the Brett Memorial Ice Arena.

"We figured we'd have a better chance," Tumbleson said. "We have a lot stronger team."

Troisi notched a hat trick, Tumbleson added a late goal and Ronnie Walker registered 19 saves as the Warriors improved to 2-0 in Region III play.

Troisi notched his first of three goals 1 minute and 57 seconds into the contest, scoring a wrap-around goal. Troisi skated around the back of the Knight net from left to right, slipping the puck alongside the skate of goaltender Tyrel Hinkel.

Troisi struck again swatting in a slow-rolling Carl Brent shot from the point, early in the third period.

Nearly three minutes later, Troisi took a Derek Banbury and muscled a shot past Hinkel.

Tumbleson scored with 5:16 left to ice the game.

The contest was a break-out game for Troisi offensively. The Wasilla sophomore skated in just his third game of the season after a six-week injury.

Chris Arentz scored a power-play goal for Colony with 2:51 left in the first to tie the game at 1-1. Following the Arentz score, the game stayed deadlocked at 1-1 until six minutes into the third period.

Penalties were the story in the first two periods, with the two squads combining for 50 minutes worth of infractions in the first two frames.

When Wasilla decided to stay out of the box is when it was able to strike. The Warriors scored three unanswered goals in the third period to help claim the win.

"We drew the line in the sand," Eric Troisi said. "All the penalties were ridiculous. The slashes and the retaliations, we can't have those."

Random shots … Colony was 1-6 on the power play, while Wasilla was 0-6 with the man advantage … Each team took 10 penalties for 28 minutes … Hinkel stopped 26 shots in the game … The Warriors improved to 3-5 overall and 2-0 in conference play. Wasilla is tied with Kenai for the Region III lead … Colony dropped to 2-6 overall in 0-2 in Region III.