Crimson Bears sweep visiting Kodiak Bears off icy home den
- Klas Stolpe
- 15 hours ago
- 7 min read
JDHS earns state playoff berth with two wins over conference foe
By Klas Stolpe
Juneau Independent
Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé senior Isaac Phelps got the puck rolling Tuesday morning as the Crimson Bears hockey team completed a sweep of the visiting Kodiak Bears 3-1 on the Treadwell Arena ice. JDHS had won 4-3 Monday night.
Phelps broke open a tight contest that saw the goaltenders for each side blank their opponent through the first 15 minutes of action and a physical skating presence by both sides on the forecheck and backcheck.
With roughly two minutes remaining in the second period, Phelps found space on a JDHS power play to give the Crimson Bears a 1-0 lead, assisted by sophomore Summit Bos.
“It wasn’t just me,” Phelps said. “We had Paxton Willoughby and Ryker Nelson in front of the net, just screening the goalie. If I took that shot without anyone in front of the net it would not have gone in. Credit to them. It was a good one to get things started.... It is just like coach tells us all the time, ‘Just shoot the puck, get it off quick.’ He is always telling us to get it off quicker, that it is ‘too slow, too slow.’ That is kind of the stuff that goes through my mind in those moments.”
The game slowed down for Phelps this time, not his shot.
“Knowing that I had some forwards in front of the net to screen the goalie, I just took the puck around to the front,” Phelps said. “And I saw that the goalie couldn’t see me and that is when you want to shoot.”
Phelps commented on Kodiak's quality goaltending.
“It can get frustrating,” Phelps said. “Credit to that goalie. He is a real special guy. He does great but we just have to keep going. We had 40 shots today. That is what it takes, the whole team banging away, working hard.”
Kodiak did not have an easy time themselves as JDHS junior Jed Davis continues to be one of the most dominant goaltenders in the league. Davis stopped 19 of 20 shots Tuesday morning and 17 of 20 on Monday night.
Kodiak plays two goalies. Junior Garrett Wood stopped 37 of 40 shots Tuesday and senior Simon Lonheim stopped 42 of 46 Monday.
“We are not sure who is better,” Kodiak assistant coach Tim Hocum said. “We struggle with that. It is usually whoever has the best last practice gets the next game and the other one gets the second game... Our team is great. They look at the scoreboard and see 40 shots and they know our goalie kept them in it.”
Kodiak goalie coach Savana (Knutson) Gruner, who played high school hockey in Willmar, Minnesota and college hockey at Gustavus Adolphus College and Chatham University, is credited for the Bears play in the pipes.
“Honestly, that is all them,” Gruner said. “They are such great kids it makes coaching them so easy… Honestly, I feel like in Kodiak we have so many amazing coaches, unfortunately for the younger kids they don’t have a lot of experience as far as goaltending so when we first start it is really honing in on the basics, the fundamental stuff. They just work really hard. They are coachable and listen… Honestly, the key to being a good goalie is having a short memory. That is pretty helpful. You can’t dwell on things. You have to realize you might make a mistake and get scored on, but just think of what you can do better next time. It is really just a mental game. You have got to let it go.”
JDHS would take a 2-0 lead with 12:21 left in the third period as Bos put in a power play shot, assisted by sophomore Nelson and freshman Willoughby.
Kodiak answered 18 seconds later with a goal by junior captain Cooper Smith, assisted by junior Coven Otto and freshman Tanner Bunch, cutting the lead to 2-1 with serious skating time remaining.
“The biggest takeaway for me is that Kodiak came to play,” JDHS head coach Matt Boline said. “All the travel issues we had and cancellations over the last month and a half or so I feel like they have dealt with even more. They haven’t had a clean trip yet this year. Every single time they have traveled they have had some type of delay. That stuck out to me, they came ready to play no matter what.”
JDHS had a defining moment midway through the final period as senior Nolan Cruz, junior Caden Morris, junior Bryden Roberts and Phelps muted a Kodiak power play. It was the on-ice work the entire Crimson Bears team had showcased throughout the series.
Boline noted the steady forechecking play of Cruz and senior Emerson Newell and sophomores Nelson and Bos - among others - who “are kind of coming into their own maturity wise as players and they are dragging Paxton (Willoughby) along with them. He’s a freshman and a big guy and had a nice goal tonight and the three of them play on a line together.”
Willoughby scored with 4:12 remaining in the game, assisted by Nelson, for the 3-1 final tally.
“I just got an amazing pass from Ryker and our O line has been working in front of the net,” Willoughby said. “I just got a little bit on it and it chipped up and went in… I definitely feel more comfortable compared to my first game, which was very scary. But now I feel good, I am ready. It is awesome and I enjoy being out there.”
Willoughby said he is learning from upperclassmen, from sophomores to seniors, “how to play this faster-paced game and make the plays that are right and learn as a team and get better.”
JDHS’ Nelson earned a Tuesday Star of the Game with two assists, Kodiak’s Smith for one goal, and Willoughby for one goal and one assist.
JDHS’ 4-3 win Monday came on a sudden-death overtime goal by senior Elliot Welch, who earned one of Monday’s Star of the Game honors with two goals, Bos earned the honor with one goal and one assist, and Kodiak goalie Simon Lonheim earned the honor with 42 saves.
On Monday, Davis stopped 17 shots. Five penalties were called Monday, two from JDHS and three on Kodiak. On Tuesday, Kodiak had four penalties and JDHS two.
Boline commented on his team putting 86 shots on goal over the series against two quality Kodiak goaltenders.
“I think that is resiliency,” Boline said. “Finding different ways to shoot. Not totally reinventing the wheel every time but changing little things here and there to find opportunities and just not stopping.”
Kodiak head coach Josh McCarthy could not make the trip, according to assistant coach Hocum, who said, “We had a lot of really good play, sometimes better than we do in practice, but we have some things to clean up. We are a young team. Sometimes we just forget our fundamentals. I think we learned that when we stick to them we are successful and when we get out of that we struggle... We had a great time, the community was wonderful.”
Next up for the Crimson Bears is senior night Friday against Homer. Senior celebrations begin at 6:15 p.m. with the game following at 7:30 p.m.
Crimson Bears seniors Elias Schane, Elliot Welch, Jack Barrett, Nolan Cruz, Hunter Lingle, Emerson Newell, Isaac Phelps, Zachary Prather, Issy Martin, Paxton Mertl and John Melancon will be honored.
JDHS and Homer will also play at 1:30 p.m. Saturday.
The sweep over Kodiak was crucial for state qualifying.
Palmer hosts the state tournament Feb. 5-7. The qualifying teams are seeded one through eight based on comparing scores against common opponents, wins and overall records and goals for and against.
“This locks us into no lower than third in our conference,” Boline said. “Sohi (Soldotna) has a chance to finish 7-3 and the worst we can finish is 6-4 so if we lose one more between us and Homer then we would win the tiebreaker. So if we win one we solidify second in our conference.”
JDHS is 6-2 in the Division II Northern Lights Conference and 8-5 overall. NLC standings are 1. Palmer 8-1 (14-5 overall); 2. JDHS 6-2 (8-5 OA); 3. Soldotna 2-3 (8-7-1 OA); 4. Kodiak 2-4 (7-9 OA); 5. Kenai 1-4 (4-13-1); 6. Homer 0-5 (1-10 OA).
In the DII Aurora Conference Houston is 3-0 (11-4-1 OA); 2. North Pole 3-1 (15-1-1 OA); 3. Monroe 1-2 (6-3 OA); 4. Delta Junction 1-3 (4-12-1 OA); 5. Tri-Valley 0-2 (1-6 OA).
Both conferences qualify their top three teams. Two at-large teams are selected among the non-qualifying teams across both conferences based on the Ranking Percentage Index (RPI). Seeding for all eight state qualified teams is determined through the same RPI. The RPI is based on a team’s record versus eligible varsity DI and DII games, opponents winning percentage, and opponents’ opponents winning percentage.
• Contact Klas Stolpe at klas.stolpe@gmail.com.
