The Juneau-Douglas High School hockey team was besieged by an onslaught of Homer Mariners on Friday night and Saturday night, escaping with a hard-fought 4-3 decision in game one and dropping a tough 3-1 battle in game two.

“We did not come focused,” JDHS head coach Dave McKenna said of Friday’s contest. “They came out and played physical hockey against us and we didn’t respond as well as we should have. We did not play like we had practiced all week.”

The Mariners fired 38 shots on Crimson Bears goaltender Colter Pritchard and the 135-pound junior kept 35 of them safely out of the net. Juneau-Douglas put just 18 shots against Homer’s Alex Sanarow between the pipes.

Juneau-Douglas found the pipe hole first as Dalton L’Allier put a wrister past Sanarow at the 9:46 mark of the opening period. Smooth skating Jonathan Weston broke through traffic to find L’Allier near the left wing. The two freshmen showed Homer what they can expect to see on the ice over the next three years when they come to Treadwell Arena.

Homer knotted the score at the 10:40 mark of the second period when Tommy Bowe scored on an assist by Nibit Matveer and Mavrick Imanov. The Mariners took a lead at the 5:05 point when Mark Reutov scored on a Bowe pass.

The Crimson Bears scored three minutes later as Tod Baseden notched the corner of the net on a Bill Holbrook pass and sending the teams to the third period even.

JDHS struck in rapid succession in the final outing. Baseden scored at the 12:34 mark on a Holbrook assist and two minutes later Holbrook scored unassisted as he attacked the goalmouth.

The Mariners got one back at the 5:34 mark of the third period as Kai Simmons scored on a short-handed goal with assists by Matveer and Bowe. Homer fired on goal nine times in the final three minutes but couldn’t penetrate Pritchard’s magical kingdom in the blue circle.

JD’s Holbrook and Homer’s Matveer and Bowe were named Stars of the Game.

The Crimson Bears were whistled seven times. Kevin Zigarlick was called for crosschecking, Baseden for slashing, L’Allier for head contact, Zach Easton for tripping, Christian Jacobsen for slashing, Zach Bicknell for roughing and JDHS was whistled once for two many men on the ice.

The Mariners’ Eric Rosecrans was whistled for hooking, Bowe for twice checking from behind, and Kontontin Reutov for tripping.

On Saturday both teams were primed for a physical match up. Crimson Bears forward Tod Baseden found the back of Homer’s net at the 10:39 mark of the first period on a nifty pass from Holbrook.

Homer tied the game at the 5:16 mark of the first when Bowe scored on an assist by Reutov.

JDHS wouldn’t find a point again on the night but hoisted 31 shots at Mariners’ stopper Alex Sanarow in the pipes.

Grifin Bozarth got the duty in goal for JDHS and stopped 23 shots.

The Mariners scored in each of the final two periods. Matveer tallied on an assist by Reutov and Bowe at the 7:24 mark of the second and Bowe scored on a Reutov and Matveer assist at the 13:45 mark of the third.

Bicknell was whistled for interference and illegal head contact; Easton for slashing; Zigarlick for interference; and Matthew Campbell for roughing. For Homer, Mavrick Ivanov was whistled for holding, Kiril Sanarov for high sticking, Reutov for misconduct, and Connor McCarron for unsportsmanlike conduct, holding, and checking from behind.