Three times the Soldotna Stars and Kenai Kardinals have faced-off in the 2021-22 hockey season. Three times the Stars and Kards have played into overtime.
On Thursday night at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex, the Soldotna Stars finally defeated Kenai with an overtime goal and SoHi secured an automatic berth into the Division II state hockey tournament. The Kardinals, also own one of four automatic berths; however, the loss opens the door for the Houston Hawks to win the Railbelt Conference regular season title.
SoHi 3 – Kenai 2 Overtime
Gehret Medcoff scored the Stars game-winning goal just :53 seconds into the overtime period to push the Stars past the Kardinals 3-2 on Thursday at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex. SoHi, 6-3-2 in the Railbelt, has one remaining regular season conference game on Friday at Homer; Kenai finishes conference play with an 8-3-1 Railbelt record.
The Kardinals opened the scoring with a first period goal by Jacob Begich for a 1-0 first period lead. SoHi scored two, second period goals for a 2-1 lead. Star goals were recorded by Aiden Burcham and Dylan Dahlgren.
Into the final minute of regulation, Kenai’s Koda Norbeck nets the game-tying goal for the Kardinals with only :12 seconds remaining to force overtime.
SoHi’s Medcoff seals the Stars victory with the overtime goal on an assist from Dylan Dahlgren :53 seconds into the extra period.
In goal for the Stars,, Ayden See records 24 saves; Carson Koppes records 26 saves for the Kardinals.
In their three meetings in the regular season, Kenai defeated SoHi 6-5 in overtime at the Peninsula Ice Challenge; Kenai and SoHi tie 4-4 in overtime in their December meeting and SoHi takes the 3-2 overtime victory on Thursday.
The Soldotna Stars close-out the regular season on Friday with a Railbelt Conference contest in Homer against the Mariners. Game time is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Kevin Bell Arena.
Follow the Stars on KSRM 920AM and streaming live at radiokenai.com.
Railbelt Conference Standings Update (Standings are unofficial until certified following final games)
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
