Railbelt Conference hockey opened the new year with the Soldotna Stars opening a three-game, home weekend on Thursday with a 4-2 victory over the Juneau-Douglas Crimson Bears.
The Bears battled through canceled flights and a breakdown of their ground transportation, before ever taking the ice against the Stars at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex.
SoHi 4 – Juneau 2
The SoHi hockey team opened a 3-0 lead in the first two periods, then held-off a third period attack by the Crimson Bears for the 4-2 Railbelt win.
SoHi’s Daniel Heath opened the scoring before most were fully-seated with a goal just :48 seconds into the contest. Leading 1-0 in the second period, Boone Theiler netted the Stars second goal at 2:14 with an assist from Aiden Burcham. Burcham added a goal at 12:21 of the second for a 3-0 SoHi lead over Juneau.
Juneau scored back-to-back goals early in the third period by Sam Bovitz to close the gap to 3-2 SoHi. An insurance goal by Burcham with 3:12 remaining secured the 4-2 victory for the Stars. Ayden See, in goal for the Stars, recorded 18 saves on 20 shots. The Stars out-shot Juneau 32-20.
SoHi and Juneau return to the ice on Friday, January 7th with a 6:45 p.m. scheduled game time at the SRSC.
Follow the Stars on ESPN 1140Am, 96.9FM and streaming live at radiokenai.com
Hockey Weekend Schedule
The Kenai Kardinals face-off against the Homer Mariners on the Kenai Multipurpose Facility ice on Friday with a 7 p.m. game. Kardinal hockey will be broadcast on KSRM 920AM and streamed live at radiokenai.com.
On Saturday, Kenai battles Juneau at noon on the Kenai Ice on KSRM 920 AM and radiokenai.com; SoHi hosts Homer on Saturday at the SRSC with a 7:00 p.m. scheduled conference game on ESPN 1140AM, 96.9FM and streaming at radiokenai.com.
