JDHS wins on ‘icy’ road trip at Soldotna
- Klas Stolpe
- 9 hours ago
- 4 min read
Crimson Bears outshine Stars in classic team effort
By Klas Stolpe
Juneau Independent
A first varsity goal, a clean sheet and a total team effort earned the Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé Crimson Bears hockey team a 1-0 road win over Northern Lights Conference foe Soldotna on Wednesday at the Stars’ barn.
“It was a really great all-around game,” JDHS coach Matt Boline said. “It was a team-earned shutout...Soldotna is a really tough team to beat any time, but especially in their own barn. They play tough at home, and their home arena is different than any other.”
The Soldotna Sports Complex is an Olympic-size venue with a sheet 200 feet long and 100 wide, whereas standard sheets for JDHS are 200 by 80.
“There are only two sheets of ice in the state that are Olympic-size sheets,” Boline said. “That's the Sullivan Arena where the Wolverines play in Anchorage and then the Soldotna Sports Complex. It is bigger, there's more space for shots; for the goalies the angles are different. For the players, the passes are longer and it's farther, it takes longer for the puck to go across the ice, and it's just a tough place to play in because you take a lot of energy covering more ice and it's a tough thing to adjust to.”
Crimson Bears junior Jed Davis, playing his first game in three years, started in the pipes and stopped all 28 shots the Stars threw at him, including two power plays in the first and second quarters.
“It was great, there is no better way to start the year,” Davis said. “Everyone on the team played their part and it showed. The shutout was great, but I had a lot of help from my teammates out there, they were taking pucks for me left and right, and I am super grateful for that. Overall it was a good team effort and a solid win.”
The first period was played to a scoreless draw, with Davis stopping 10 shots and Soldotna’s Brycen Clyde stopping 11.
“In the first period we really put Soldotna on their heels right off the opening faceoff,” Boline said. “When the puck dropped at the start of the game, there was no whistle for close to six minutes, and it was because we were just relentlessly attacking them over and over again, making line changes through our fore check and just keeping them on their heels and that's how we started the game and that was a pretty big thing…Soldotna is a well-coached team and are really good at making adjustments, and we told the kids they would counter our game plan going into the second period and we had to counter their counter.”
According to Boline, the series before the Crimson Bears’ score in the second period was key with JDHS on a power play and maintaining pressure down low. Crimson Bears sophomores Ryker Nelson and Summit Bos, along with freshman Paxton Willoughby were controlling the puck low, pulling the Sohi players deep into the zone and testing Sohi’s Clyde from the blue line.
On the following shift in the second period JDHS freshman defenseman Manu Adams scored his first career varsity goal with 3:14 remaining in the stanza, assisted by junior forward Tricen Headings and senior forward Paxton Mertl.
“I just got the puck and I could see Tricen screening the goalie,” Adams said. “I thought I should get the shot off quick. Then I knew it was in and felt good celebrating with my teammates.”
JDHS would put 15 shots on goal in the second period to Sohi’s eight.
“He (Adams) was wide open close to the blue line and it was a quick catch and release shot right on net, and we had traffic in front of the net,” Boline said. “That was a big factor, too, and something that we talked about. Palmer had some great goalies that we played against two weekends ago and Soldotna's goalie is no different, a very strong goalie. I mean, we took 30 shots and only got one by, that's pretty darn good. And so in order to score against goalies like that you need to have bodies moving in front of the net and trying to get screens and just lots of traffic to create opportunities for the puck to bounce off a stick or a skate or a shin pad and go in. This one went in clean without hitting anybody, but the traffic in front is what created that.”
In the third period, JDHS was not content to sit back and protect its lead but instead continued to attack.
“We locked it down in front of our own net,” Boline said. “Jed definitely earned the credit for the shutout but it was definitely a whole team shutout. The whole team was back checking pressure on Sohi’s offense and then our forechecking kept them in their zone, all those things like pushing them wide to take shots from wide angles that are easier to save, those are all things needed for a great all-around team shutout.”
The teams compete again Thursday. JDHS will play Friday and Saturday at Kenai.
• Contact Klas Stolpe at klas.stolpe@gmail.com.
