The Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé Crimson Bears hockey team shared their final home ice with not one, but two, visiting teams and showcased the energy needed to play long into the state tournament with wins over Division II Aurora Conference foes Tri-Valley Warriors and the Division I Railbelt Conference Wasilla Warriors on Friday.
“It is the season finale weekend,” JDHS coach Matt Boline said after Friday’s first games. “We had two teams here, that has never happened before. Originally it was a little bit of a scheduling mistake, but we made lemonade out of lemons and made it happen. We have 39 kids in our program and would love to see every single one of them touch the ice this weekend, and represent their team and their town and their school well.”
JDHS opened the weekend with an 8-3 win over Tri-Valley on Friday afternoon.
“This weekend is pretty important to me and everybody,” JDHS senior Luke Bovitz said. “We had a pretty poor performance last weekend so this weekend is a really good opportunity to muster up some enthusiasm, just energy among the team to carry into state next weekend.”
Although Tri-Valley’s Quincy Hjorth scored the games first goal, assisted by Reid Williams, with 9:56 remaining in the opening period the Crimson Bears answered 30 seconds later with senior captain Luke Bovitz finding the net assisted by classmates Emilio Holbrook and Matthew Plang.
“A game is a game,” Bovitz said. “You can’t always change the outcome. As long as everyone is giving 110% and working as hard as they can that is all you can really ask for. It’s a buy-in system. Everybody has to buy-in, give it their all, and you never know what is going to happen but you just have to buy into it.”
JDHS would counter each early Tri-Valley score with one of their own until they took control of the ice.
Tri-Valley’s Hjorth scored with 3:41 left in the first period (Ast. Williams, Taylor Eddington) and JDHS junior Elliot Welch scored with 1:10 left unassisted and Plang found another score with 10 seconds remaining (Ast. Holbrook) for a 3-2 lead.
“This weekend is build up our confidence for the whole team,” JDHS junior Elliot Welch said. “Last week was hard. Our energy level was low. So this week, with two teams coming here, this is our last week for high school games before state. So we’ve got to build up our confidence, build up our energy levels again and then we’re going to have to go hard at state. So really it is good we can play Tri-Valley and Wasilla, that’s tough, so just in general it is hard because it is one week before state and we are going to be tired. But we have the endurance.”
JDHS would put four goals into the net in the second period with Holbrook on a power play at 5:48 (Ast. senior Dylan Sowa, Bovitz), Sowa at 3:53 (Ast. senior Zander Smith, Bovitz), Smith at 3:30 (Ast. Sowa, Bovitz) and Bovitz at 1:35 (Ast. Sowa). Tri-Valley’s Williams hit with 3:08 left in the second period for their final goal (Ast. Hjorth). JDHS would add their final score with 10 minutes left in the third period by junior Isaac Phelps (Ast. Sowa).
JDHS had no penalties in the contest and senior goalie Caleb Friend stopped 26 shots while Tri-Valley’s Elijah Graham stopped 22.
In a late game Friday JDHS defeated DI Wasilla 2-1 behind a first period goal from Plang at 7:46 of the first period, assisted by senior Carter Miller, and a third period goal by Sowa at 9:53 unassisted. Wasilla freshman Elijah Barcelona scored at 12:50 of the second period assisted by junior Evan Owen.
JDHS’ Friend stopped 29 shots on goal and Wasilla freshman goalie Braeden Willis 21.
“I am sad to see the seniors go,” Welch said. “It is going to be tough next year. Seeing them go we have to have our juniors, and next year’s juniors, to step up and fill the places that these seniors are leaving behind.”
Welch noted the impact of the seniors and all seniors through his career.
“Really it is not just this senior class,” he said. “I was swing my freshman year, varsity second and third, so each senior group has taught me stuff along the way and all of them have helped me improve my game. Not just one senior class, they have all helped me.”
Although JDHS had secured a spot in the state tournament the weekend was important for where that spot would be.
“While we were trying to get more kids ice time we were also trying to be super competitive and we needed to win those games,” coach Boline said. “That is really important. We needed to do our job. We needed to win games and put our fate in our own hands.”
The JDHS seniors are giving fans everything they have in the tank over the weekend.
“These are my last games,” Bovitz said. “It hasn’t really hit me yet. It’s weird to think about. I’ve had 15 years here so it is kind of crazy to feel and see.”
JDHS faces Wasilla again at 3 p.m. today and Tri-Valley at 8 p.m.
• Contact Klas Stolpe at klas.stolpe@juneauempire.com.
