Goalie Matthew Noreen loses his stick as Nick Rutecki (20) clears the puck and Cole Carnhan (23) lends support against Hutchinson. JDHS hosts North Pole Dec. 4-5.
Story last updated at 11/24/2009 - 10:40 am
The Juneau-Douglas hockey team returned home after a challenging weekend in Homer.
JDHS went 0-4, 0-3 in tournament play, losing each game by one goal, but coach Dave McKenna said this was a great learning experience in preparation for conference play.
"On the whole, we were very disciplined throughout the weekend and definitely saw areas for improvement," he said. "The results are frustrating, as a different bounce here or there could have changed the outcome of any game, but the talent level was much higher this year than in years past."
The Bears went to overtime in their first game of the weekend against Soldotna, but came out on the wrong end of a 2-1 score. While this game was not part of the tournament, McKenna said it was a great warm-up.
"Soldotna is a great team and we played a good game against them. It was fast, physical, but really clean," he said.
Robin Woodby scored the lone goal for the Crimson Bears with assists from Zane Chapman and Trever Held. Garret Cheeseman had 29 saves off 31 shots. Juneau had 26 shots on the game.
In the opening game of the tournament, JDHS matched up against Homer High School and lost 4-3 in a rough game.
"Homer played a very physical game and we lost our focus trying to match their hitting instead of focusing on puck movement and positioning," McKenna said.
John Kenyon, Chris Jacobsen and Chris Budbill scored for Juneau-Douglas, while Matt Noreen tallied 25 saves.
JDHS would lose their third game in a high-scoring affair, 6-5. Cheeseman, in again at goalie, had 50 saves in the game.
"None of them were easy," McKenna said.
Chapman, Kenyon and Billy Holbrook accounted for three goals while Held had two scores.
In the final game of the weekend, Hutchinson defeated JDHS 2-1. McKenna said the game was fast-paced and Hutchinson was very skilled and well-coached. Nick Mow scored the only goal for the Bears while Matt Noreen had 41 saves.
"We have challenged ourselves with a tougher schedule this year with the goal of getting more competitive with the Fairbanks teams in our conference," McKenna said. "We'll see where we stand when North Pole comes to town."
JDHS will host North Pole on Dec. 4-5 at Treadwell Arena in Juneau.
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