Young Knights improving quickly

PALMER — As the Colony Knights skated into the 2010-11 season, first-year head coach Jamie Smith and his players set a list of team goals. On that list was to win 10 games.

Just three weeks into the season and the young Colony Knights are already more than halfway there. Colony, a team made up predominately of underclassmen, improved to 6-3-0 over the weekend with a pair of wins during the Curtis C. Menard II Memorial Hockey Tournament.

“These kids, they’re just buying into it,” Smith said after Colony stunned East Anchorage 7-6 in overtime on the final day of the Menard Saturday.

Colony entered the season with a new coaching staff. Smith, the former longtime head coach of the Houston Hawks program, took over after taking a short break from coaching prep pucks. Smith inherited a Knights team that featured only five seniors and five juniors.

The sophomores made up Smith’s largest class, and the coach also had freshmam he figured would crack the lineup.

New personalities, new systems, new talent — Smith thought 10 wins was a good number to shoot from. Now, the Knights are already up to six, and Smith said overall improvement has lead to that.

“The kids have progressed a ton,” Smith said.

Colony has a handful of veterans who have seen their share of ice time with the Knights. The list includes senior forward Daryl Belanger, and junior defensemen Braxton Cline and Stephen Tobin.

Belanger enjoyed a five-goal weekend during a three-game trip to the Interior early in the month. Each of those seniors also found the back of the net during the Menard.

Smith said the leadership of players such as Belanger and junior Trevor Naylor has also been key.

“We’re finally getting some leadership,” Smith said. “Guys like Belanger and Naylor have stepped up.”

Naylor, one of the Knights’ smaller players, has been an offensive force so far this season. He posted 11 points during that trip to the Interior. Naylor also had five assists in the win over the Thunderbirds.

Goalie Forrest Savel joins Naylor in that junior class. Smith said he expects goaltending to be a strength for Colony this season.

Smith is also excited about a sophomore class that includes forward Jonathon Boyer, and defensemen Morgan McJimsey, Donovan Parker and Kevin Hartley.

The Knights have also used Hartley at forward.

“We moved him up front and he’s played phenomenal,” Smith said of Hartley, who netted a hat trick against East.

Forward Anthony Kolendo is among the freshmen seeing significant ice time.

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