Friday: Palmer hockey topples Soldotna

The Palmer hockey team defeated Soldotna 7-1 on Friday in Northern Lights Conference action at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex.

The Moose improve to 9-3 overall and 3-0 in the conference with the victory.

The Stars topped Palmer 8-5 on Nov. 1 in nonconference play to back up a 4-3 overtime victory at the sports complex last season in the Division II state semifinal.

The Moose were not having it this time, winning the shot count 44-13.

Palmer won for the sixth straight time, including recent third-period comebacks against Juneau-Douglas: Yadaa.at Kale and Colony. Tuesday, the Moose trailed the Knights 7-4 entering the third period only to win 10-7.

“We have really been focusing on playing three full periods of hockey,” Palmer head coach Rusty Belanger said. “We’ve had a couple games that have been a lot of fighting through adversity and having to persevere in the third period, and we’ve won them, but it’s not the way we want to get there.

“We want to come out fast and play three periods of rock-solid hockey, because we have the talent to do it.”

The Stars fell to 5-5-2 overall and 0-1 in the league. SoHi was playing for the first time since Nov. 23, but assistant coach Dagen Walton said that’s not an excuse.

“The first game we played them, we were a lot more disciplined,” Walton said. “We took some untimely penalties tonight, and we just didn’t move our feet enough in comparison to the previous game.

“The first game, we outworked them more than we did tonight. Tonight we got outworked.”

In the first period, Elijah Von Gunten got started on a four-point night with an unassisted goal, then Zidane Dietz put Palmer up 2-0 headed to the second period with a breakaway, short-handed tally.

Jacob Logan scored on the power play for Palmer to start the second period, but Soldotna cut it to 3-1 on a power play goal by Daniel Heath.

Palmer closed out the victory with four unanswered, starting on another unassisted Elijah Von Gunten goal to end the second period.

The third period saw goals from Peyton Neumann and Zander Anderson, and a short-handed goal from Neumann. Neumann didn’t play the last game against Soldotna because he was still with the swim program.

Belanger said freshman goalie Ryder Lawton also shined with 12 saves.

“I had an idea he would be one of the key pieces I needed for this game,” Belanger said. “And he proved it.”

Brycen Clyde made 37 saves for the Stars. They were not cheap ones. The Moose drove the puck to the net with traffic all night.

“A lot of those goals were backdoor stuff or rebounds that, on most occasions, are cleaned up by our guys,” Walton said in absolving Clyde.

Walton also said Nathan Hawkins played with a lot of heart.

Palmer faces another big conference test with a noon game Saturday, Dec. 7, against Kenai Central at the Kenai Multi-Purpose Facility.

“This is what I’ve been looking for all year, or maybe the past three or four years, to see them all play,” Belanger said of the complete Friday effort of his team. “Now, the big challenge is, can they do it again?”

Walton said the loss is motivation going forward.

“I think sometimes it takes losing in order to win,” he said. “Sometimes, a game like this can wake you up in a positive way.

“So it’s up to us to turn this into something positive.”

The Stars will face Homer at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 10, at Kevin Bell Ice Arena in Homer.

Friday

Palmer 7, Soldotna 1

Pal 2 2 3 —7

Sol 0 1 0 —1

First period — 1. Palmer, E. Von Gunten (un.), 6:33. 2. Palmer, Dietz (un.), sh, 11:40. Penalties — Palmer 1 for 2:00; Soldotna 3 for 6:00.

Second period — 3. Palmer, Logan (McQuillin, Neumann), pp, 6:20. 4. Soldotna, Heath (Crabtree, Mullican), pp, 8:51. 5. Palmer, E. Von Gunten (un.), 12:26. Penalties — Palmer 1 for 2:00; Soldotna 1 for 2:00.

Third period — 6. Palmer, Neumann (E. Von Gunten), 6:20. 7. Palmer, Anderson (E. Von Gunten, Greco), 9:30. 8. Palmer, Neumann (K. Von Gunten), sh, 10:31. Penalties — Palmer 3 for 6:00; Soldotna 2 for 4:00.

Shots on goal — Palmer 17-18-9—44; Soldotna 6-4-3—13.

Goalies — Palmer, Lawton (13 shots, 12 saves); Soldotna, Clyde (44 shots, 37 saves).

Power plays — Palmer 1 for 6; Soldotna 1 for 5.