The Kenai Kardinals faced off against the Soldotna Stars on Friday night in subzero temperatures for the rubber match of the two teams’ season series. The Stars took the first game 3-0 in Kenai earlier in the season, but then the Kardinals returned the favor, knocking off the Stars 5-3 in Soldotna in early January.
The temperature in the Kenai Ice Rink definitely played a role, dropping as low as -17 degrees during the game.
The Kardinals jumped out to an early lead when Logan Mese netted a pass from Sawyer Vann 3:17 into the first period. Mese was nowhere near done in this one, though, and turned in arguably his best game of the season Friday. He scored a first-period hat trick, and a goal from Braden Smith at 5:30 left the Stars stunned, trailing 4-0 at the first break.
The four Kardinals’ goals led to something rarely seen this season: a hook for SoHi goalie Tanner Clyde. Clyde was pulled for his younger brother Brycen after Kenai’s fourth goal of the opening frame (Mese’s hat trick shot).
A scoreless second period was marred by penalties, most coincidental, as frustrations and perhaps some bad blood boiled over at times. The two teams combined for 12 penalties in the second.
Things eventually got interesting late in the third period. The Stars finally broke through Evyn Witt’s force field and pulled within 3 goals at 4:50 on a Boone Theiler goal. The score remained 4-1 until the last two minutes when Stars coach Anthony Zurfluh pulled Brycen Clyde for the one-man advantage. The Stars promptly netted their second goal courtesy of a Jace Appelhans put-back at 13:26.
Off the next face-off, Clyde had barely reached the bench when Appelhans poked one through for the second time in 11 seconds, pulling the Stars within one.
Soldotna’s hopes quickly faded, however, when Logan Mese found an empty net 28 seconds apart, giving the Kardinals their final victory score of 6-3.
The Kardinals and Stars will see one another again very soon, however. The two Central Peninsula hockey programs will face one another in the opening round of the state tournament this Thursday at 6:30 p.m.
Tune into ESPN 1140 AM, 96.9 FM for the call, or stream the game audio live at radiokenai.com.
