History will show the West High hockey team opened defense of last season’s state championship with a win over Service on Friday.
Tuesday night, a more fortified version of the Eagles scored their second Cook Inlet Conference victory at Ben Boeke Arena.
Junior Reed Bott scored twice and added an assist in West’s 4-2 triumph over South. Bott was one of eight returning Eagles in uniform who helped the program to its fifth First National Cup Division I state title back in February.
But only 2024 champion returners Alexander Drews, Richard Lissner and Imanol Oliveras dressed out during Friday’s 4-2 win against Service. West’s roster read differently from game one to game two because of a comp team’s weekend trip Outside.
West senior Paul Dittrich scored a goal and an assist Tuesday in his first CIC action of the season. Gage Brody also scored. Sophomore goaltender Zane Parish won his second consecutive start, stopping 16 South shots. Parish went 2-2-0 with a 3.89 goals-against average and .875 save percentage last season as a Service Cougar.
The Eagles are 2-0-0 overall as well as in the CIC’s 64th regular-season standings.
South is struggling out of the gate. After winning the 55th CIC conference tournament months ago, the Wolverines sit at 0-2-0 and 0-1-0 in league play. They lost a 2-1 nonconference game to Wasilla on Saturday.
Senior Carson Lake notched his team’s first goal Tuesday and junior Henry Olson added the second. Senior Thomas Tunney collected two assists.
Both West and South are scheduled to participate in this week’s Stars & Stripes Showdown in Palmer. In an intriguing twist, the Eagles will play in the tournament’s round-robin format versus Division I opponents Colony (Thursday) and Wasilla (Friday), and DII’s Palmer (Saturday). The Wolverines will face only DII teams – Palmer, Kenai and Houston.
Remember, Alaska features only 22 high school hockey-playing schools. Yet the powers that be still insist on the silliness that is housing two classifications. Houston is the defending DII state champ.
Tonight, in CIC play at Boeke, Bartlett (East co-op, aka BEast) plays its first varsity tilt of the season against Dimond. The Lynx are likely still licking their wounds after going 0-3-0 on a trip to Fairbanks last weekend.
