Weekend hockey: Kenai, SoHi set up important Friday clash

The Northern Lights Conference, and by extension the Division II state hockey tournament set for Feb. 1 to 3 at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex, got even more interesting after a weekend of play on the Kenai Peninsula.

Palmer leads the NLC at 6-2, but the Moose lost to Kenai on Thursday and Soldotna 5-3 on Friday before registering a 6-1 victory at Homer on Saturday. The Moose finish with two games against Kodiak, which is 2-6, and Palmer can lock down the top spot in the conference by beating the Bears twice.

The Juneau-Douglas: Yadaa.at Kale hockey team defeated Kenai Central 7-3 on Friday and 7-3 on Saturday at the Kenai Multi-Purpose Facility. The Crimson Bears finish conference 7-3 and are guaranteed one of three automatic berths to state out of the league.

The other automatic berth will go to Soldotna or Kenai. Both teams are 6-3 and play Friday at the Multi-Purpose Facility at 7 p.m. Although the loser of the game is a safe bet to get one of two at-large berths to state, the state seeding and rivalry at stake assures a spicy affair.

“At the end of the day, we’ve got a great conference,” Juneau coach Matt Boline said. “We’ve got four teams that are just pumping and rolling pretty hard right now.

“It makes things interesting, which is fun.”

Kenai coach Scott Shelden said with teams like Houston and North Pole in the Aurora Conference, the Division II state tournament gets even more interesting.

The Crimson Bears snapped a five-game winning streak for the Kardinals heading into the two-game series, dropping them to 10-9-1 overall.

By winning twice, Boline said the team met its goal of not having to wait for an at-large berth.

“We wanted to make our own destiny and not leave it up to chance,” he said. “We didn’t want to wait and see what happens with other teams.”

Shelden said the credit goes to Juneau for coming in and getting that job done.

“They’re fast, they move the puck and they’re well-coached,” he said.

The Friday loss for Kenai came on senior night. Kylee Verkuilen, Jacob Wait, Ethan Tree, Grace Hallam, Toby Petty, Jackson Marion, Vincent Steen, Sam Vybiral and Ashlyn Potton were the seniors honored.

Friday, Juneau got on the board just 16 seconds into the game when Caden Johns got started on a four-goal, one-assist night. Luke Bovitz had the assist.

With 1:08 left in the second period, Avery Martin tied it for Kenai with help from Logan Mese.

A crucial turning point came in the last 3:48 of the second period. Elliot Welch, with help from Johns, put the Crimson Bears up 2-1 with 3:48 left, but with 1:41 left, Mese scored on a Sawyer Vann assist.

With 1:21 left in the second, Kenai was called for a pair of penalties at the same time. It took Juneau just 28 seconds to go up 4-2, with Johns scoring twice. Welch had one assist and John McElmurry had the other.

After Juneau’s fourth goal, Seanna Swanson came on in relief of Evyn Witt in the net.

“When Elliot Welch scored that third goal — that go-ahead goal — I think that was the turning point,” Boline said. “Then we got the power play shortly after that and just kept on going.”

The Crimson Bears would score twice in the first five minutes of the third period. Welch scored on a McElmurry assist and Bovitz scored unassisted.

With 9:12 to play, Kenai cut it to 6-3 on a Mason Vermette goal and a Vann helper.

With 4:26 to play, Johns struck again unassisted with more insurance for the Crimson Bears.

Mason Sooter made 31 saves for Juneau. For Kenai, Witt saved 36 of 40 and Swanson saved 6 of 9.

Boline credited senior captains Johns, Sooter and Camden Kovach for great leadership in the Friday victory.

Saturday, the Kardinals scored the only goal of the first period, with Martin scoring on Vann and Mese assists.

In the second period, Juneau scored twice in the first five minutes for a 2-1 lead. McElmurry scored unassisted, and Dylan Sowa got started on his hat trick on Isaac Phelps and Kovach assists.

With 3:21 left in the second period, Martin tied the game with an unassisted strike. With 1:01 left in the second period, the Crimson Bears went up 3-2 when Sowa scored on Sonny Monsef and Kovach assists.

Just over a minute into the third period, Juneau was up 4-2 on a Matthew Plang goal, assisted by Loren Platt.

With 12:02 left, Kenai cut it to 4-3 when Noah Hallam scored with help from Vann and Isaac Potton.

Starting with 6:53 to play, the Crimson Bears scored the last three goals of the game. Sowa completed his hat trick with help from McElmurry and Monsef, Plang scored on Johns and McElmurry assists, and Bovitz scored on a Welch helper.

Swanson made 35 saves for Kenai, while Sooter stopped 19 for the Crimson Bears.

Soldotna 5, Palmer 3

The Stars improved to 10-5 overall with a victory over Palmer on Friday at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex.

SoHi celebrated senior night. The seniors honored for Soldotna were Kyler Howell, Mykah Booth, Gehret Medcoff, Andrew Arthur, Tanner Clyde, Riley Thompson, Mason Chase, Ava Fabian and Aiden Stinnett.

The game got off to a quick start, with SoHi taking a 2-0 lead in just under three minutes of play. Medcoff had an unassisted goal, then Arthur scored on Boone Theiler and Medcoff assists.

Palmer came right back and had a 3-2 lead before 10 minutes were gone in the game. Kaleb Von Gunten scored on an Elijah Von Gunten assist, Kinan Greco scored on an Elijah Von Gunten assist and Zidane Dietz scored on Elijah Von Gunten and Kaleb Von Gunten assists.

Clyde settled in between the pipes after that, ending up with 39 saves. Keagon O’Bryan had 27 for the Moose.

Theiler tied the game in the second period for Soldotna on assists from Jace Appelhans and Arthur.

With 9:44 left in the game, Arthur put SoHi ahead to stay on an Appelhans assist. With 4:47 left, Marshall Deraeve added some insurance with help from Medcoff and Theiler.