The Colony Knights took control early against Juneau-Douglas High School Friday night at Treadwell Arena, scoring three goals in the first period, to secure a 7-1 road victory.
In the first of meeting between the teams this season, the Knights scored two shorthanded goals and outshot the Crimson Bears 35-11.
“I think we just got a little caught off guard and how well (conditioned) they were,” JDHS defenseman Tyler Weldon said.
Colony’s Cole Doss stopped 10 of the 11 shots he faced. Cody Mitchell and Wolf Dostal split time in between the pipes for JDHS and together stopped 28 shots total.
“Credit to the Colony Knights — they’re a fast team and they were able to move the puck really well and put us on our heels for a while,” JDHS head coach Luke Adams said.
Foster Riekena and Mitchell Diltz both scored in the first five minutes of the first period to give the Knights a quick two-goal lead.
The Crimson Bears were on the power play late in the period when Tae-jean Evans snuck behind the JDHS defense to score on Mitchell and push the Knights’ lead to three.
Two minutes into the second period, Evans again went behind the Crimson Bears defense. His wrist shot clanked off the right goal post — one of at least three Knights shots that rang off the goal post on the night.
Midway through the second period, Colony’s Ethan Korynta found himself all alone in front of Mitchell and tallied the Knights’ fourth goal of the game.
Two minutes later, Riekena came in all alone on Mitchell, whose right leg pad couldn’t catch up with Riekena’s slap shot.
“I saw someone kind of backchecking me so I just wound up,” Riekena said.
Minutes after Cooper Smith shot a puck off the post, the senior forward beat Dostal at 14:37.
JDHS skated hard throughout the third period, and was rewarded with a Jacob Dale power-play goal. Dale received the puck just inside the blue line near the Colony bench, fixed his eyes toward the net and shot it past Doss at 10:54. It was Dale’s team-leading fifth goal of the season.
Colony now improves to 10-3.
“I think this year is our best bet for winning state. We’ve been progressing every year, we got three region titles already under our belt,” Riekena said.
Knights 7, Crimson Bears 1
Colony 3 3 1 — 7
JDHS 0 0 1 — 1
First period — 1. Colony, Riekena (Smith), 0:42. 2. Colony, Diltz (Riekena), 4:49. 3. Colony, Evans (Ketchum), SH, 12:41. Penalties — Colony 3 for 6:00.
Second Period — 4. Colony, Korynta (Holman), 8:19. 5. Colony, Reikena (Evans), SH, 10:24. , 6. Colony, Smith (un.), 14:37. Penalties — Colony 3 for 17:00; JDHS 3 or 6:00.
Third period — 7. JDHS, Dale (Monsef, Bosse), PP, 10:51. 8. Diltz (Smith), 13:49. Penalties — Colony 2 for 4:00
Shots on goal — Colony 10-10-15 —35; JDHS 2-6-3 —11.
Goalies —Colony, Doss (11 shots, 10 saves); JDHS, Mitchell/Dostal (35 shots, 28 saves)
Power plays — Colony 0 for 3; JDHS 1 for 8.
• Contact sports reporter Nolin Ainsworth at 523-2272 or nolin.ainsworth@juneauempire.com.
