Juneau-Douglas High School senior forward Ryan Liebelt beat Hutchison goalie Alaya Brunty just 44 seconds into Saturday’s match against Hutchison. Liebelt went five hole with a snap shot from center ice, the first of three goals he would score in the game.
“It’s always nice to get those right off the bat,” Liebelt said. “Versus Friday night, we were moving the puck a lot better. Today was the first game we had better, harder passing, but we have to keep working hard on that.”
The Crimson Bears, which benefitted from the power play nearly the entire game, would keep the goals coming all night in their 11-0 takedown of the visiting Hawks.
Liebelt and senior forward Simon Marks both tallied triples in win with Liebelt’s effort opening the game and Marks’ closing it: he waited until the final two seconds of the game to complete his.
“Everything just seemed to come together,” Marks said, adding that the game was a confidence builder. “It’s great, going into conference games it’s good to be on the up.”
Junior forward Jacob Dale followed Liebelt and Marks’ lead with two goals and an assist. Forwards Josef Monsef and Dalton Hoy and defenseman Jaime Moreno all scored a goal each.
Cody Mitchell stopped all nine of Hutchison’s sporadic shots as the Hawks struggled to get the puck out of their defensive zone.
Though JDHS’ offensive prowess highlighted the game, a lopsided penalty count made their win all but inevitable. Hutchison was charged with 73 minutes of penalty time compared to Juneau-Douglas’ five. The Crimson Bears enjoyed at least a man advantage for nearly the entire game.
Crimson Bears head coach Luke Adams said Hutchison’s play didn’t warrant the egregious amount of penalty time.
“While I am happy we did well on the power play, I would have to admit that we didn’t deserve to be on the power play for nearly the entire game,” Adams said. “Some of those calls shouldn’t have happened and it’s unfair.”
Adams went further, saying he’s worried that if officiating continues to be “inconsistently” applied in Juneau — specifically by one official — the Crimson Bears home ice will gain an unsavory reputation. It takes a lot of fundraising and hard work to get Anchorage and Fairbanks teams to Southeast, and if the officiating isn’t fair, they may stop coming.
“Teams aren’t going to come down (to Juneau) and that’s unfortunate because they work really hard to come down here but they’re leaving with more suspensions than good feelings,” Adams said.
Hutchison head coach Jason Witt was dismissed toward the end of the game for unsportsmanlike conduct. Adams said Witt was just asking for clarification on a call.
“At the end the coach got two disqualification penalties for just trying to clarify a call. … Every time there is a collision that’s not perfect, that doesn’t mean you need to take someone out of the game for 10, 15 minutes. … There has to be some sort of standard but unfortunately, some of the standards here are different than the rest of the state. There has to be some consistency because right now we aren’t getting teams leaving here with good feelings because the standards aren’t consistent and that’s a problem.”
After a Thanksgiving break, JDHS faces Dimond High School junior varsity Dec. 2 and 3 at Treadwell Ice Arena.
• Contact Sports and Outdoors reporter Kevin Gullufsen at 523-2228 or kevin.gullufsen@juneauempire.com.
Clarification: This article has been updated to clarify that Luke Adams was speaking of an official in particular, not the whole officiating crew who worked Saturday’s game. Adams was clear in initial interviews that he took issue with only one official but the article didn’t reflect that.
An earlier version of this story also incorrectly stated that “Kyle Farley-Robinson stopped all nine of Hutchison’s sporadic shots” in Saturday’s match. Kyle Farley-Robinson wasn’t playing that night, Cody Mitchell played goalie and was credited with the shutout.
The Empire regrets all errors. To report an error or request a correction, email editor@juneauempire.com or call 523-2265.
