Friday, November 1
Soldotna 8, Palmer 5
Recap provided by Bob Bird
The SoHi Stars appeared unimpressed with Palmer’s 8-3 win over Kenai the night before, turning the tables and whipping the Moose with an onslaught of 3rd-period goals.
Noah Crabtree opened the scoring with a “Michigan” goal, so-called due to the first time it was ever successfully attempted in a collegiate game by a U of Michigan player. According to Wikipedia, it is a goal scored by an attacker starting behind the opposing net, lifting the puck onto their stick-blade, carrying it while being balanced there, then quickly moving their stick around to a top corner of the net, and flinging the puck into the net at close range in a lacrosse-style shot.
But, leading the charge was forward Daniel Heath, who notched a 4-goal game for the Stars. Soldotna never trailed in the contest but was pressed by the Moose every time they took the lead. A 3-1 lead in the 2 nd period was quickly tied by two quick Palmer goals less than a minute apart, including a spectacular breakaway by Elijah Van Gunten. But incredibly, the Stars answered with their own breakaway goal when Heath cemented a hat-trick 19 seconds later, making it 4-3.
The 3rd period buried Palmer with 4 goals by the Stars, including Heath’s fourth goal, Noah Crabtree’s second, and goals by Nathan Hawkins and Marshal De Raeve. Brycen Clyde made 26 saves for the Stars, and Kai Curl 17 for Palmer.
Kenai 6, Colony 2
After a tough season-opening loss to the Palmer Moose on Thursday night, the Kenai Kardinals righted the ship with a dominant win over the Division 1 Colony Knights. Logan Mese led the way, who had three goals, and a sensational night from goalie Evyn Witt, and the Kardinals as a whole looked much more cohesive than the previous night.
In the first period, Gavin Liles opened the scoring for Kenai; the defenseman, assisted by Mason Butler, notched his first goal of the season and gave the Kardinals an early lead just a little over two minutes into the game. A few minutes later, at 6:28, Mese scored the first of his hat-trick goals, punching one past Colony goalie Tess Jorgensen. Kenai held a 2-0 advantage after one period.
The Kardinals double their lead in the second period with unassisted goals from Mese and Sawyer “Buzz” Vann. Colony managed to get the puck past a nearly impenetrable Evyn Witt for their first goal of the night.
Kenai kept the pressure on in the third period, once again scoring twice on a goal from Noah Hallam at 2:54, assisted beautifully by Everett Chamberlain from the flat board just to the left of Colony’s net. Mese finished off his three-goal night, scoring with an assist from Cameron Schwinn at 6:38.
Saturday, November 2
Soldotna 4, Kenai 0
Recap provided by Bob Bird
The Soldotna Stars polished off the Kenai Kardinals in a hard-fought and cleanly played game Saturday afternoon. Despite dropping a 4-3 decision on opening night to the Colony Knights, the Stars found themselves with 8-5 and 4-0 wins over Palmer and Kenai.
All three teams entered the final day of play with 1-1 records, and if the puck went their way, any one of the four might have won the tournament honors. Palmer defeated Colony 5-1, giving them 2nd place, the Kardinals took 3rd, and the Knights’s early promise on Thursday came to naught.
Daniel Heath turned in a career performance over the tournament, scoring 7 goals in the Stars’ two victories: 4 against Palmer and a 3-goal outburst against Kenai. Goaltender Brycen Clyde shouted out the Kards with 30 critical saves, many of them from in close.
The Stars showed depth from two young players, freshman Noah Crabtree and diminutive sophomore Draiden Mullican. Crabtree scored 3 goals and 5 assists during the tournament, and Mullican was used with particular savvy during regular shifts and power plays.
Tournament sportsmanship was evident by all four teams, especially in the usual post-game handshake line, and often featured opposing players in private conversations, prayer groups, hugs and photo-ops.
