Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé senior Dylan Sowa scored four goals and classmate Caleb Friend stopped 34 shots to lead the Crimson Bears to a 5-4 extra-time win over the third-seeded Houston Hawks in the opening game of the 2025 ASAA Division II Hockey State Championships on Thursday at Soldotna.
“Our leaders led and everyone else bought into that and followed suit,” JDHS coach Matt Boline said. “Not knowing the matchups for the rest of the tournament I think everyone here knew that the first game of the tournament could end up being the best game for the weekend.”
JDHS is seeded sixth in the tournament, but senior Caleb Friend played like the state’s top goalie as he stopped 33 shots by the defending state champion Hawks in the game. Friend stopped a backhanded shot in the opening minute of action, setting the tone for his defensive work throughout the contest.
JDHS senior Emilio Holbrook put the first shot on goal in the opening minutes, but it went wide as both teams introduced themselves with tough checking across the ice.
Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé senior goalie Caleb Friend protects the net against North Pole earlier this season. Friend had 33 saves in Thursday’s 5-4 extra-time win over the Houston Hawks to open the 2025 ASAA Division II Hockey State Tournament at Soldotna. (Klas Stolpe / Juneau Empire file photo)
Houston senior Daniel Matveev put the Hawks on the board with a shot that took an unlucky bounce off another player and nestled in behind JDHS’ Friend with 10:23 left to play in the period. Houston senior Domnin Efimov got the assist.
Houston had a power play soon after, but JDHS killed that time off. JDHS junior Elliot Welch and senior Matthew Plang both had good shots on Houston junior goalie Dylan Shaffer, but were denied.
With 5:34 remaining in the period JDHS senior Luke Bovitz chased down a faceoff behind the Houston net and played it out in front of the goalie, where classmate Dylan Sowa awaited to put it in and tie the game at 1-1.
“Dylan Sowa’s name can not be said enough,” Boline said. “He had 15 goals in 10 conference games this season. With his four goals today he displayed his incredible ability to fire the puck.”
JDHS’ Friend would come up huge in the waning minutes of the period, stopping three point-blank shots, two with under 90 seconds remaining and another with just 25 seconds left to skate.
Friend stopped nine shots in the first period and Houston’s Shaffer four.
Friend was challenged again just seconds into the second period and deflected a mid-air shot off the rink netting for another save, and just a minute later stopped two shots in front of the crease.
“Caleb Friend was outstanding again today,” Boline said. “They had 38 shots on goal today and most coming from top-notch players in the state.”
JDHS sophomore Drew Cadigan-Mcadoo gave the Crimson Bears their first lead of the game with 13:14 left in the second period assisted by Holbrook. The puck went around the net off a faceoff, and Holbrook skated it in and passed to Cadigan-Mcadoo who tapped it past the Houston goalie.
Houston struck back a minute later with the Hawks’ Matveev getting his second goal, assisted by sophomore Zasim Konev and freshman Andrey Efimov, to tie the game at 2-2.
JDHS’ Welch had a point-blank shot with nine minutes left to play, but Houston’s Shaffer gloved the puck in.
JDHS’ Bovitz had a breakaway with under eight minutes to play, but Houston’s Shaffer protected his crease and JDHS’ Welch put a pass to Holbrook in the crease minutes later that Shaffer again covered up.
JDHS’ Friend had to stop two shots with 5:32 remaining and a penalty on the Crimson Bears’ Bovitz would keep the senior goalie on his skates again as Houston had a power play.
JDHS’ Sowa took a narrow angle and put in his second goal shorthanded with under four minutes to play for a 3-2 Crimson Bears advantage.
Both teams played a man short with minor penalties as the second period played down. Houston’s Shaffer was kept busy by JDHS’ Holbrook and JDHS’ Friend was kept busy by Houston’s Matveev.
JDHS’ Bovitz would get his second penalty of the game protecting his teammates with 26 seconds left in the stanza and Friend would kill the Houston advantage into the break.
JDHS’ Friend stopped 11 shots in the stanza to total 20 over two periods and Houston’s Shaffer stopped 13 in the stanza for a two-period total of 17.
JDHS’ Bovitz finished off his penalty and got back on the ice to pass a perfect puck to Sowa on a breakaway, and Sowa earned a hat trick with 12:36 remaining in the final period, assisted by Bovitz for a 4-2 lead.
“Luke Bovitz was outstanding again as well,” Boline said. “He is one of the most dynamic players we have ever had in our program.”
With 10:37 left to play Houston’s Matveev also garnished a hat trick with a goal, assisted by Konev, and closed the score to 4-3 with JDHS leading.
With under 10 minutes remaining JDHS’ Friend saved another hard and JDHS senior Zander Smith was issued a penalty putting the Crimson Bears a man down.
A face-off resulted in a scrum that Friend survived and another faceoff was covered again by Friend who would stop five shots in the penalty.
Houston’s Efimov scored with 5:25 remaining in the game and 10 seconds left in the power play assisted by Matveev to tie the score at 4-4.
A minute later JDHS’ Friend had a game-saving stop with a puck inside the blue crease to give the Crimson Bears a boost.
Both goalies would keep covering hard shots in the final three minutes of action as players threw slap shots on goal to win the game in real time, instead the sides began an eight-minute sudden death period.
JDHS’ Friend was tested early in the extra minutes, stopping two shots in the first minute of action, a faceoff and three more shots before the Crimson Bears could get the puck in their side.
A faceoff won by Bovitz resulted in a game-winning slap shot by Sowa with 5:40 left in the extra time.
JDHS’ Friend stopped 34 shots in the game and Houston’s Shaffer stopped 23.
Earlier this week Bovitz was selected to the Northern Lights All-Conference team.
“He is the all-time leader in points for JDHS history,” coach Boline said of Bovitz. “He is the only player to score more than 100 points. Before this weekend he had 105 career points. He only played in three games at the state tournament his freshman year and scored three points. He has 102 points over his last three seasons.”
JDHS advances to Friday’s 4 p.m. semifinal against the Palmer Moose who topped seventh-seed Tri-Valley.
• Contact Klas Stolpe at klas.stolpe@juneauempire.com.
