The Soldotna hockey team defeated Service 3-0 in the Peninsula Ice Challenge on Thursday at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex, while Houston defeated Kenai Central 5-1 at the Kenai Multi-Purpose Facility.
Friday in the Ice Challenge, Soldotna plays Houston at 3:45 p.m. at the sports complex and Kenai plays Service at 7 p.m. at the multi-purpose facility.
Saturday, Houston plays Service at 11:30 a.m. at the multi-purpose facility and Kenai plays SoHi at 2 p.m. at the multi-purpose facility.
The Stars, the defending Division II state champions, received a 21-save shutout from Tanner Clyde.
Clyde had just won a Division II football title with the Stars on Saturday and injured his ankle in that game, but was recovered enough to get the shutout in net.
The game was scoreless until early in the third period.
With 14:13 left in the game, Mykah Booth scored on assists from Jace Applehans and Andrew Arthur.
Just under a minute later, Marshall Deraeve made it 2-0 on another helper from Arthur.
Arthur sealed the victory with 16 seconds left with help from Draiden Mullican and Peyton Williams.
Suresh Navitsky had 32 saves for the Cougars.
Houston 5, Kenai 1
The Hawks closed with four unanswered goals to topple the Kardinals.
With 9:53 left in the first period, Daniel Matveev scored for Houston on a Brody Richard assist.
Kenai answered with 2:43 left in the first when Avery Martin scored with help from Isaac Potton.
Houston’s Carter Cook had the lone goal of the second period, assisted by Daniel Kuzmin and Matveev.
In the third, Houston had three goals in the first five minutes.
Cook scored on an assist from Domnin Efimov, Zasim Konev scored on an assist from Philip Kuzmin and Richard scored on an assist from Matveev.
Seanna Swanson stopped 36 for the Kardinals, while Dylan Shaffer stopped 15 for the Hawks.
