The Kenai Kardinal hockey team broke a 2-2 tie late in the third period for a 4-2 home ice win over the Homer Mariners on the Kardinal’s Senior Night at the Kenai Multipurpose Facility on Tuesday. Kenai avenged a season-opening 5-4 loss to the Mariners in Homer and improved to 3-1 in the modified, peninsula regular season.
Kenai 4 – Homer 2
Kenai senior Tucker Vann opened the scoring just :15 seconds into the game with an assist by senior Aiden Milburn. the Mariners answered with an unassisted Hunter Green power-play goal midway through the period for a 1-1 tie.
Kenai regained the lead with the only second period goal coming off a power-play with Gavin Langham, lighting the lamp at 3:47 of the second period.
Homer struck in the first minute of the third period to tie the game at 2-2 with a second goal for Hunter Green. From there, the Kardinals took over the contest with a go-ahead, power-play goal by Landen Cialek with only 1:56 remaining and an insurance goal before the buzzer by Jacob Begich.
The Kardinals and Mariners meet again on Friday night in Homer at the Kevin Bell Arena. Game time scheduled for 7:00 p.m. and the broadcast will be on ESPN 1140Am and streamed live at radiokenai.com.
SoHi travels to Homer on Saturday to battle the Mariners in a 5 p.m. contest on ESPN 1140AM and streamed at radiokenai.com.
Kenai 4, Homer 2
Kenai 1 1 2 —4
Homer 1 0 1 —2
First period — 1. Kenai, Vann (Milburn), 0:15; 2. Homer, Green (un.), pp, 7:37. Penalties — Kenai 2 for 4:00; Homer 1 for 2:00.
Second period — 3. Kenai, Langham (Sheldon), pp, 11:13. Penalties — Homer 2 for 4:00; Kenai 1 for 2:00.
Third period — 4. Homer, Green (Stineff), 0:27; 5. Kenai, Cialek (un.), 13:04; 6. Kenai, Begich (Shelden, Milburn), 14:59. Penalties — Homer 3 for 6:00; Kenai 1 for 2:00.
Goaltending — Kenai, Jackson Cross (21 shots, 19 saves); Homer, Keegan Strong (58 shots, 54 saves)
