Thursday: Prep hockey gets rolling on peninsula

The prep hockey season opened Thursday night with a pair of games in the Peninsula Ice Challenge.

Palmer defeated Kenai Central 8-3 at the Kenai Multi-Purpose Facility, while Colony defeated Soldotna 4-3 at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex.

Friday, Soldotna and Palmer face off at 3:45 p.m. at the sports complex, while Kenai and Colony tangle at 7 p.m. at the rink in Kenai.

Saturday at the sports complex, Palmer and Colony play at 1:15 p.m., while Kenai and Soldotna play at 3:45 p.m.

The game between Kenai and Palmer featured two teams that lost in the semifinals of last season’s Division II state tournament. The Moose topped the Kardinals 7-2 in the third-place game.

Palmer coach Rusty Belanger expects to be a challenger at state again.

“We’ve got 11 seniors, so next year is going to be tough,” Belanger said. “It’ll be a building year.

“But if you have a year where we’re going to do something and make a mark, this is it.”

The Moose got off to a promising start against the Kardinals, who have 10 seniors under first-year head coach Steve Hallam.

“In Palmer, we knew we’d see a top-rate, top-notch team coming right out of the gate,” Hallam said. “The score kind of got away from us a little bit, but we knew they were going to be good.”

Kinan Greco, assisted by Elijah Von Gunten, scored first for Palmer, but Logan Mese answered with a pair of breakaway goals for Kenai.

Mese is Belanger’s nephew.

“I feel like with him, there’s no game out of reach,” Hallam said. “He can score so fast.”

Bryce Horacek, assisted by Cooper Frank, had it tied headed to the second period.

Zander Anderson, assisted by Kaleb Von Gunten, started the second period with a power-play goal. Elijah Von Gunten, assisted by Greco and Liam Hilscher, made it 4-2 with 10:37 left in the second.

Kenai’s Ryder Gagnon notched his first varsity goal to cut it to 4-3. Oliver Parrish had the assist.

Palmer closed the period with goals by Hilscher, assisted by Elijah Von Gunten and Anderson, and Kaleb Von Gunten, assisted by Horaceck and Jacob Logan.

Hilscher then finished off a hat trick with two goals in the third period. Horacek, Kellen Kinneen and Elijah Von Gunten had assists.

Belanger said Hilscher, a senior, had the hat trick in his first high school game. Hilscher comes to the Moose from California, where high school hockey is under USA Hockey. In Alaska, hockey is under the National Federation of State High School Associations.

Hilscher still comes with AAA experience.

“He’s a great player,” Belanger said.

The Moose outshot the Kardinals 46-15, with Mily Christman stopping 12 for Palmer and junior Evyn Witt stopping 38 for Kenai.

“He just loves the game of hockey,” Hallam said of Witt. “Having a guy like that who’s passionate about winning — it’s just huge.”

Hallam said the Kardinals will rely on the seniors — including names like Mese, Avery Martin, Sawyer Vann, Gavin Liles and Cole Langham — for leadership.

“It’s great as a coach to have senior leadership that you can trust,” Hallam said. “They want to win and they’re good kids too.

“So they’re going to take care of teammates and take care of underclassmen.”

Hallam said he expects a competitive season in the Northern Lights Conference, which also includes Homer, Juneau-Douglas: Yadaa.at Kale, Kodiak, Palmer and Soldotna.

“Part of the fun is you can’t overlook anyone,” he said. “There’s no team that’s an easy win.”

He also expects the Aurora Conference to produce state challengers, including Houston and North Pole. The Hawks have won two of the last three Division II state crowns.

Colony 4, Soldotna 3

The Knights, a Division I school, held off the Stars, the Division II state runner-up last season.

The two squads exchanged goals early, with Colony’s Logan Lofland scoring with help from Jaxon Allen and Austin Fangmann, and Soldotna’s Marshall DeRaeve scoring on Daniel Heath and Noah Crabtree assists.

DeRaeve, on a Crabtree helper, put SoHi out front later in the first, but Colony’s Toryn Coffey, on a Cody Linstrom assist, tied it at the end of the first.

Colony scored the lone goal of the second period, with Jace Albers scoring on the power play on Lofland and Simeon Adams assists.

Colony went up 4-2 early in the third when Albers scored on Dane Joseph and Allen helpers. Riley Cronin answered back for the Stars with 11:57 to play, but Colony’s Trenton Adams, who had 25 saves, closed the door from there.

Brycen Clyde stopped 23 for the Stars.

Thursday

Moose 8, Kardinals 3

Pal 2 4 2 —8

Ken 2 1 0 —3

First period — 1. Palmer, Greco (E. Von Gunten), 3:13. 2. Kenai, Mese (un.), 6:47. 3. Kenai, Mese (un.), 8:03. 4. Palmer, Horacek (Frank), 14:31. Penalties — Palmer 2 for 4:00; Kenai 2 for 4:00.

Second period — 5. Palmer, Anderson (K. Von Gunten), pp, 1:15. 6. Palmer, E. Von Gunten (Greco, Hilscher), 4:23. 7. Kenai, Gagnon (Parrish), 4:29. 8. Palmer, Hilscher (E. Von Gunten, Anderson), 12:20. 9. Palmer, K. Von Gunten (Horacek, Logan), 13:56. Penalties — Palmer 1 for 2:00.

Third period — 10. Palmer, Hilscher (Horacek, Kinneen), 1:30. 11. Palmer, Hilscher (E. Von Gunten), 11:21. Penalties — Palmer 2 for 15:00; Kenai 2 for 4:00.

Shots on goal — Palmer 15-18-13—46; Kenai 4-6-5—15.

Goalies — Palmer, Christman (15 shots, 12 saves); Kenai, Witt (46 shots, 38 saves).

Thursday

Knights 4, Stars 3

Col 2 1 1 —4

Sol 2 0 1 —3

First period — 1. Colony, Lofland (Allen, Fangmann), 2:02. 2. Soldotna, DeRaeve (Heath, Crabtree), 3:21. 3. Soldotna, DeRaeve (Crabtree), 10:23. 4. Colony, Coffey (Linstrom), 14:40. Penalties — Colony 2 for 4:00; Soldotna 2 for 4:00.

Second period — 5. Colony, Albers (Lofland, S. Adams), pp, 5:26. Penalties — Colony 2 for 4:00; Soldotna 3 for 6:00.

Third period — 6. Colony, Albers (Joseph, Allen), 1:10. 7. Soldotna, Cronin (un.), 3:03. Penalties — Soldotna 1 for 2:00.

Shots on goal — Colony 8-14-5—27; Soldotna 10-9-9—28.

Goalies — Colony, T. Adams (28 shots, 25 saves); Soldotna, Clyde (27 shots, 23 saves).