Wasilla, Palmer prepare to face familiar foes

WASILLA — Both the Palmer Moose and Wasilla Warriors have faced their first-round state tournament draws. Even though each Valley program dropped identical 6-0 losses to the respective Anchorage-area programs, both are setting their sights on very different outcomes at the state tourney.

On Thursday, during the opening round of the ASAA/First National Bank 4A State Hockey Championships, Palmer will face Service at 5 p.m. and South Anchorage will meet Wasilla at 7:30.

Palmer and Wasilla both qualified for the state tournament with North Star Conference Championships semifinal wins last Friday, but the Moose earned the NSC’s top seed by beating Wasilla 5-3 in the conference title game. That set up a first-round date with the Cook Inlet Conference’s No. 4 seed, Service.

“I’m definitely feeling confident about (the Service game),” Palmer senior Piers LaFrance said after the win over the Warriors. “Hopefully we can shut them down.”

Wasilla beat Service 4-3 during the regular season. In Palmer’s loss to Service, the Moose also played their reserve goaltender. Freshman goalie Ashton Good, who was named second-team All-NSC, is expected to start.

“Hopefully with Ashton in net, we can do a lot better,” LaFrance said.

Wasilla also had it’s No. 2 goalie in during its last game against South Anchorage. Freshman Rhys Jones, who played well in net during relief of injured starter Zach Eastham, made his first career varsity start during that loss to the Wolverines.

After the loss to Palmer, Wasilla head coach Bill Sturdevant didn’t know exactly who his team would face during the first day of the tourney. He did know it would be either CIC champion Dimond or South.

“It’s going to be a team we’ve seen already. We saw Dimond early in the season and I don’t think we were clicking,” Sturdevant said. “We saw South right after Christmas, and it was Rhys’ first game as a varsity goaltender. I think we could do well against both teams if we’re ready to play.”

Dimond earned the CIC crown with a 2-0 win over South last Saturday. East Anchorage, which plays Mid-Alaska Conference champion Lathrop, beat Service 3-0 in the CIC third-place game.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/sports.