Chugiak’s Fischer Sims (25) celebrates with Blake Yawit. Photo by Stephanie Burgoon/Alaska Sports Report
As one of the key returners to the Chugiak High hockey team, Fischer Sims made certain to not get too caught up in what the Mustangs achieved a season ago.
Although, doing so proved difficult.
“It was very special,” Sims said Thursday night after Chugiak’s 13-0 victory over Bartlett (aka BEAST, Bartlett-East co-op) at Ben Boeke Arena. “As a team, (we were) almost like a super team. The best high school team I’ve seen.”
Last year, Chugiak scored the Cook Inlet Conference regular-season and tournament titles before winning the ASAA Division I First National Cup state championship to cap a 23-0-1 record, making the Mustangs the first team to pull off the unbeaten feat in more than a decade.
Seniors graduated. Others moved on, this, of course, being the CIC and the Anchorage School District, that includes some players transferring throughout the league. This 2023-24 stable of Mustangs as a team was bound to be different.
Chugiak went out anew and lost its first game – a 6-3 setback at Wasilla in late October.
“Yeah, it felt kind of weird,” Sims said of finally digesting a loss. “But we knew, this year, we’d really have to find a way to grind it out.”
The championship shine certainly wore off quickly. Chugiak lost five of its first eight games and needed Thursday’s win over the Golden Bears to climb within a game of .500 overall (4-5-0, 4-2-0 CIC).
CIC League Standings
| POINTS | TEAM | RECORD |
| 10 | West | 5-0-0 |
| 8 | Chugiak | 4-2-0 |
| 4 | Service | 2-1-0 |
| 4 | South | 2-1-0 |
| 2 | Dimond | 1-3-0 |
| 2 | Bartlett/East | 1-3-0 |
| 0 | Eagle River | 0-5-0 |
A senior, Sims showcased some of what makes him one of the conference’s top talents by scoring four goals and adding two assists. He whipped down the right-wing side and sped by the defense on his second goal and Chugiak’s fourth at 8 minutes, 22 seconds of the first period.
Eleven different Mustangs registered points. Sophomore Dane Casey scored two goals and two assists and senior Austin Laflamme tallied twice and added an assist.
Senior goaltender River Scott finished with 11 saves. She played last season as an East High junior for both the Bartlett-East boys and Service-East girls squads.
Chugiak scored five times in the first period, twice in the second and six in the third. Sims’ hat-trick, third goal at 4:47 of the third allowed a running clock to close out the evening’s festivities.
Bartlett freshman netminder Reece Morton was credited with 23 saves.
Unfortunately for Bartlett (1-4-0, 1-3-0), this marked the second time in two days it was hit with the mercy-rule treatment. The Golden Bears, with a few East Thunderbirds sprinkled in, lost 16-0 to West on Tuesday. In quite the gauntlet, they face off against Service on Friday.
Edwin Maxwell pushes the puck up ice. Photo by Stephanie Burgoon/Alaska Sports Report
“It’s a big ask,” said Bartlett coach Mike Vandenbos said. “These players are going to stay with it and continue to grow as a team.”
We’re entering a wildly busy stretch for almost every CIC squad. From Oct. 26 to Wednesday night, the seven league teams played 26 combined league games. Between Thursday and Dec. 19 which leads into the holiday break, the teams combine to skate in 29 scheduled tilts.
This hellacious stretch coincides with the North American Hockey League’s Anchorage Wolverines leaving town and the Boeke sheet for more than a month. All the while, it limits the amount of practice time the CIC teams are allowed.
It’s as if 63 seasons of history doesn’t buy much sway these days.
“Coming into games without the practices can be messy and make things hard,” Sims said. “It usually takes a period or two to get back into it.”
Chugiak’s Kaden Hill buries the biscuit. Photo by Stephanie Burgoon/Alaska Sports Report
SERVICE 4, EAGLE RIVER 3 OT
Playing the second of six CIC contests in nine days and also the second game in a back-to-back-to-back, three-day stretch, Service secured its second consecutive victory thanks to senior David Knoedler’s overtime goal at Eagle River’s McDonald Center.
Freshman Torin Altenburg notched three straight goals for the Cougars (3-5-0, 2-1-0) in the first and second periods. Freshman goalie Zane Parrish made 19 saves in the win.
Eagle River’s offense was paced by senior Myla Lubken’s two assists. Three different Wolves scored goals. Eagle River fell to 0-9-0, 0-5-0.
Tuesday night, Service spoiled South’s senior night celebration by posting a 3-1 victory at Boeke. Knoedler scored a pair of unassisted goals and senior Suresh Navitsky turned away 31 Wolverines shots in net.
FORECHECK FACTOIDS
- Let’s give a stick salute to Dimond senior goalie Zoie Campbell, who this week took to social media to announce her commitment to play collegiately at Aurora University, a Division III program in Illinois. Campbell has only logged 46 CIC minutes in net for the Lynx thus far with a 2.93 goals-against average, but she’s played meaningful roles for Dimond and Dimond-West in the Anchorage Girls High School Hockey League during his prep career. She backstopped Dimond-West in a 3-0 shutout win over Fairbanks to help claim the Anchorage Hockey Association state invitational title last season.
- The Bartlett-East (BEAST) squad has the Golden Bears’ coach in Vandenbos. East’s coach is Marshall Walsh. The duo was together on the bench Thursday – Vandenbos in a Bartlett track jacket, Walsh in an East jacket. While subtle, it was a nice fashion touch to showcase the importance of both schools being involved in the program.
A BEAST of a lineup. Photo by Stephanie Burgoon/Alaska Sports Report