Mese scores 5 goals to lead Kenai hockey past Soldotna

Kenai Central’s Logan Mese scored five goals, including a hat trick in the first 10 minutes, 30 seconds, of the game, to lead the Kardinals to a 6-3 Northern Lights Conference victory at a frigid Kenai Multi-Purpose Facility in the regular season finale for both teams Friday.

“It’s definitely a good feeling,” Mese said of his five goals. “It’s always good to beat your rival school.”

The Kardinals finished the regular season at 11-9-1 overall and 7-3 in the league. Soldotna is at 10-6 and 6-4. Kenai was 2-1 against SoHi this season, with Mese notching a hat trick in a 5-3 win on Jan. 5.

Palmer wins the NLC at 8-2. Juneau-Douglas: Yadaa.at Kale and Kenai both finish 7-3, with the Crimson Bears sweeping the season series from the Kards. Those three teams get the automatic bids to the Division II state tournament at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex from Thursday through Saturday.

Soldotna, at 6-4 in the NLC, is a safe bet to get one of two at-large berths available to state. Kodiak was 2-8 in the league, while Homer was 0-10.

The Kards proved on Jan. 5 they can beat the Stars at the sports complex, but after playing a game at a covered outdoor rink where temperatures outside plunged before zero, Stars coach Anthony Zurfluh was looking forward to returning to home ice for state.

“It’s a tough place to play,” Zurfluh said of the Kenai facility. “We couldn’t make three consecutive passes. We were frozen.

“We just didn’t have a good game. The effort was there, kind of, but we just couldn’t connect.”

Mese sensed that and pounced. Kenai had lost its previous two games — both by 7-3 scores to Juneau — but the Kardinals put that behind them quickly with what Mese and head coach Scott Shelden described as a great week of practice.

“So coming into the SoHi game, I think we were pretty well prepared,” Mese said. “I think it helps that it’s kind of a colder rink that SoHi’s not used to.

“So I think that threw them off their game a bit, and we felt right at home.”

Just over three minutes into the game, Mese had the Kards up 1-0 on a breakaway goal assisted by Sawyer Vann.

“They got a Logan Mese and it’s hard to get around,” Zurfluh said. “We talked and talked and talked and talked about it and boom, on the first shift he goes out and gets one.”

Just over five minutes into the first period, Braden Smith put Kenai up 2-0 on another Vann assist. Shelden said it was huge for the second line to get a goal.

Then Mese took it from there. At the 6:31 mark, he scored on an assist from Avery Martin. Then at 4:30, Mese scored a power-play goal on another assist from Martin for a 4-0 lead.

“Logan Mese — I don’t know if he gets enough credit. He gets a lot of credit, but he’s just amazing,” Shelden said. “Avery Martin is also a very elite player. And Will Howard on that line.

“Obviously, that line is super important to us.”

Zurfluh said goalie Tanner Clyde pulled himself after that fourth goal in favor of brother Brycen Clyde.

“He was just like, ‘I need a break,’” Zurfluh said of Tanner. “So Brycen stepped in and did a great job. That’s tough to do here.”

Meanwhile, Kenai goalie Evyn Witt was doing a pretty good job himself. Witt made 26 saves in the game, while the Clydes made 25, including 13 in the first period.

Like the rest of the Kards, Witt had a tough weekend against Juneau, not making it through his Friday start.

“I think he did a really good job of bouncing back and keeping his mental state,” Mese said. “He stayed calm, because it was definitely a chippy game.”

Neither team scored in the second period, even though SoHi had 1:22 of a five-on-three power play.

Shelden said defensemen Vann, Vincent Steen, Ethan Tree and Gavin Liles had a great game.

“I just don’t think defense gets enough credit,” Shelden said. “I mean, it was 4-zip after two periods, so our goaltender, Evyn Witt, and our defense were huge to keep that to a zero ballgame.”

With 10:10 left in the game, SoHi’s Boone Theiler cut it to 4-1 on a power-play goal assisted by Jace Appelhans.

Things really got interesting when Appelhans scored with 1:34 left on an assist from Gehret Medcoff, then Appelhans scored just 11 seconds later to cut it to 4-3 on a Marshall Deraeve assist.

“We put on a little bit of pressure at the end,” Zurfluh said. “Probably a little late. Probably about five minutes late for the pressure that we needed to put on.”

Mese scored two empty-net goals in the final minute to ice the victory.

“It was a little bit scary,” Mese said of the SoHi comeback. “I think after we got the first empty-net goal, we kind of settled in, and they kind of slumped.”