The Soldotna hockey team came up with a tie, while Kenai Central lost, Thursday at the Stars and Stripes Showdown in Palmer.
Soldotna 4, Houston 4
In a rematch of last season’s Division II state final, the Hawks pulled the goalie and scored with 17 seconds left to walk away with the tie.
Houston had defeated Soldotna 7-0 in the state final last season for a second state championship in three seasons.
Zasim Konev of Houston had the lone goal of the first period.
Then came a flurry of scoring in the second period, with Daniel Heath, Noah Crabtree and Marshall DeRaeve lighting the lamp for SoHi, and Carter Cook and Andrey Efimov scoring for Houston.
Soldotna went ahead on a goal by Sylis Hughes with 1:21 left, only to have Konev answer with 17 seconds left.
Brycen Clyde had 21 saves for the Stars, while Ashton Vandersloot stopped 22 for the Hawks.
West Valley 3, Kenai Central 2
A late comeback attempt by the Kardinals came up short.
The Wolfpack jumped ahead with a Nevin Graff goal in the first period and a Logan Reinheller goal in the second period.
Just 31 seconds into the final frame, Logan Mese had the Kards within one on a power-play strike.
Reinheller pushed it back to 3-1, but Mese struck again with 4:36 to play.
Jace Burnett, who had 29 saves, kept a clean sheet from there for West Valley. Evyn Witt and Levi Crawford had 30 saves for Kenai. Witt played all but a brief part of the third period, when he left with an injury and quickly returned.
Thursday
Stars 4, Hawks 4
Sol 0 3 1 —4
Hou 1 2 1 —4
First period — 1. Houston, Konev (Efimov), 13:55. Penalties — Soldotna 1 for 2:00; Houston 1 for 2:00.
Second period — 2. Houston, Cook (un.), sh, 10:48. 3. Soldotna, Heath (DeRaeve, Zurfluh), pp, 11:38. 4. Houston, Efimov (Konev), 11:56. 5. Soldotna, Crabtree (Zurfluh, Heath), 13:53. 6. Soldotna, DeRaeve (Heath, Crabtree), pp, 14:45. Penalties — Soldotna 1 for 2:00; Houston 2 for 4:00.
Third period — 7. Soldotna, Hughes (Myrick), 13:39. 8. Houston, Konev (Efimov, Matveev), 14:43. Penalties — none.
Shots on goal — Soldotna 6-9-11—26; Houston 7-9-9—25.
Goalies — Soldotna, Clyde (25 shots, 21 saves); Houston, Vandersloot (26 shots, 22 saves).
Thursday
Wolfpack 3, Kardinals 2
Ken 0 0 2 —2
WV 1 1 1 —3
First period — 1. West Valley, Graff (J. Reinheller), 2:45. Penalties — Kenai 1 for 2:00; West Valley 1 for 2:00.
Second period — 2. West Valley, L. Reinheller (Roon), pp, 9:43. Penalties — Kenai 3 for 14:00, West Valley 1 for 2:00.
Third period — 3. Kenai, Mese (Martin, Witt), pp, 0:31. 4. West Valley, L. Reinheller (Fullford), 5:27. 5. Kenai, Mese (Witt), 10:24. Penalties — Kenai 2 for 4:00.
Shots on goal — Kenai 14-6-11—31; West Valley 9-11-13—33.
Goalies — Kenai, Witt, Crawford (33 shots, 30 saves); West Valley, Burnett (31 shots, 29 saves).
