Home ice for the Soldotna Stars and Kenai Kardinals hockey teams will hopefully provide a home advantage as the Stars and Kards close the regular season for high school hockey with Railbelt Conference games against Palmer and Houston.
It may have on Thursday.
SoHi 3 – Palmer 2 OT
Soldotna High opened the final home stand with a 3-2 overtime victory over the Palmer Moose on Thursday at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex, improving the Stars conference record to 8-1 and locking the Stars in the #1 position in the Railbelt.
The Stars scored the overtime, game-winner on a power-play goal by Galen Brantley III at 3:39 of the overtime period with assists by Wyatt Medcoff and Braxton Urban. In goal on Thursday for the Stars Corban Wirz recored 32 saves; Palmers Tierman O’Rourke turned away 56 shots in goal for the Moose. SoHi opened the scoring with a first period goal by Gavin Haakenson and added a second period goal by Brantley on a power-play.
The Stars defeated Palmer two weeks ago in overtime by an identical 3-2 score on a Brantley goal.
Hickey State Qualifying Information
Under the new ASAA guidelines for high school hockey, teams’ regular season conference records will be the determining factor to qualify to the redesigned Division II ASAA State Hockey Championships. There is no conference tournament to determine qualifiers to the Division II state tournament (a major change to decades of Alaska hockey).
The Soldotna Stars stand at 8-1 in the Railbelt Conference with a lone conference loss to Homer. The Kenai Kardinals currently own a 1-7 conference record. The top three teams in the Railbelt (based on record) automatically advance to the Division II state hockey tournament along with the top three teams from the Aurora Conference. Two At-Large berths will be determined to fill an eight-team bracket. SoHi has locked-in a playoff position and the top spot in the Railbelt, based on record. Kenai needs a pair of victories to improve chances for an At-Large berth.
Hockey Schedule For January 24-26
Thursday, January 24
Soldotna 3 – Palmer 2 OT
Friday, January 25
Soldotna vs Houston 7 p.m. Soldotna Regional Sports Complex ESPN 1140AM and www.radiokenai.com
Kenai vs Palmer 7 p.m. Kenai Multipurpose Arena KSRM 920AM and www.radiokenai.com
Saturday, January 26
Kenai vs Houston 2 p.m. Kenai Multipurpose Arena ESPN 1140AM and www.radiokenai.com
