A cavalcade of Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé and Soldotna skaters going in and out of the penalty box went against the Crimson Bears in a 4-3 loss to the visiting Stars on Friday at the Treadwell Ice Arena.
“I think the theme was there was a parade to the penalty box on both teams the whole game,” JDHS coach Matt Boline said. “Those things are sometimes out of our control and sometimes not. I think we played a good game, but it wasn’t good enough tonight. We have to be better, and I know Sohi is going to come out stronger tomorrow afternoon and we just have to be better yet.”
The physical contest between the Northern Lights Conference opponents had to be called to keep the game controlled.
Soldotna had the first penalty of the game just over a minute into the action and JDHS scored the first goal.
The Stars’ Nathan Boatright was called for slashing and JDHS senior Matthew Plang scored a power play shot with 11:59 still left in the period, assisted by senior Luke Bovitz and junior Elias Schane for a 1-0 lead.
“Juneau has always been a tough foe for us, they come strong and they are well coached,” Soldotna coach Anthony Zurfluh said.
The Stars had six players serving prior-game suspensions, but they will get three of them back for Saturday’s game.
“We had some adversity definitely,” Zurfluh said. “We had to overcome the refs. They didn’t do any favors for us tonight. I thought the reffing was probably the worst I’ve seen this year and, yeah, that’s the way it goes when you come into somebody else’s hometown. We battled through the adversity and that is a huge conference win for us. We are excited to be sneaking out of here with that win. We’ll be back tomorrow with a much better hockey team.”
Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé senior Zander Smith (8) battles for a puck with Soldotna’s Eli Settlemyer (left) during Friday’s the Crimson Bears’ 4-3 loss to the visiting Stars at Treadwell Ice Arena. (Klas Stolpe / Juneau Empire)
Soldotna tied the game at 1-1 in the first period with a goal by Riley Cronin (assist Draiden Mukllican) at 8:49 and took a 2-1 advantage in the period with a goal by Marshall DeRaeve (assist Noah Crabtree) at 1:20.
Soldotna’s DeRaeve took an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty into the second period, followed by the Stars’ Boatright earning a hooking penalty and JDHS took advantage with a power play goal by senior Emilio Holbrook as he set up in front of the Stars net and was fed by senior Dylan Sowa with 13:26 remaining in the stanza.
Soon after, the Crimson Bears’ Plang was called for hooking, putting the teams even.
JDHS senior goalie Caleb Friend came up huge as he stopped a one-on-one breakaway shot on goal by Soldotna’s Crabtree with a kick save and a minute later stopped a shot by Soldotna’s Payton Williams.
Soldotna’s Cronin would be called for hooking with 8:53 left, but JDHS did not capitalize.
Soldtona broke through with 2:48 remaining to play in the second period as Crabtree found a crease for the 3-2 advantage.
Seconds later, JDHS senior captain Bovitz was called for roughing and pumped up the home bench with encouraging words.
“I haven’t really said much about tomorrow,” Bovitz said after the game. “The same thing that goes for tomorrow goes for today. We have to want to play the game. Some parts of the game we weren’t really showing that we want to do it and then I told everybody, ‘This is our chance to play the game and we have to go hard and just do what we know how to do.’”
Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé senior Luke Bovitz (4) works the puck against Soldotna’s Noah Crabtree (7) during Friday’s 4-3 Crimson Bears’ loss to the visiting Stars at Treadwell Ice Arena. (Klas Stolpe / Juneau Empire)
JDHS’ Friend put on a strong display in the net to snuff out the last minutes of the second period.
In the third period JDHS’ Bovitz was called for interference at 11:12 and Fried stopped four Soldotna power play shots.
Soldotna’s DeRaeve was called for roughing at 9:44 and JDHS could not capitalize.
JDHS senior Loren Platt was called for slashing with 8:13 left, and Soldotna capitalized just as the ice was about to even on a power play goal by DeRaeve with 7:16 left in the game for a 4-2 lead.
Plang, assisted by sophomore Tricen Headings, pulled the Crimson Bears to within a goal at 4-3 with 4:33 remaining in the game.
Friend made two more saves in the goal mouth and with a minute left JDHS pulled him from the box to flood the ice, but could not find the tying score.
“I thought they lost control of the game,” Soldotna’s Zurfluh said of the officials. “Their job is to protect us and I don’t feel that they did their job tonight. I thought there was tit for tat…got a guy who broke a $300 stick and then they call the penalty on us…There was just some really odd calls…Right now intensity burns, we’re in Juneau and they have a tough crowd and a tough barn to play in. You can’t let the crowd emotions get over the top of us. We just tried to stay above that tonight and thank God we did. They kept coming. That game played all the way to the last second. I’m proud of my team, we had to pull up six JVers to fill some spots, and those guys got some first skates against some really good hockey players.”
Friend had 26 saves during the game while Soldotna goalie Brycen Clyde had 27.
The Three Stars of the game honors went to Soldotna’s Crabtree and DeRaeve and JDHS’ Plang.
JDHS and Soldotna play at 3:30 p.m. Saturday (JV 1:30 p.m.).
• Contact Klas Stolpe at klas.stolpe@juneauempire.com.
Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé senior Ike Puustinen (16) works for a puck against Soldotna’s Eli Settlemyer (28) as Stars goalie Brycen Clyde looks on during Friday’s 4-3 Crimson Bears’ loss to the visiting Stars at Treadwell Ice Arena. (Klas Stolpe / Juneau Empire)
