JDHS sweeps Su Valley

The Juneau-Douglas High School hockey team had three goals heading into Saturday's game against Susitna Valley - high intensity, good forecheck, play the body.

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Check, check and check.

The Crimson Bears (9-7) started fast and finished strong in a 9-0 win over the Rams on Saturday. The win follows up a 9-1 rout of Su Valley on Friday.

"We played six periods of good hockey this weekend," JDHS forward Nick Mow said.

Juneau-Douglas showed there wouldn't be any Saturday's letdown after Friday's win by scoring four first-period goals.

Kacy Carlson, who played forward instead of his usual defenseman position on Saturday, scored 3 minutes, 21 seconds off a sharp angle to put the team up early.

Mow added two more goals and Logan Miller scored off Evan Wood's assist to give JDHS a 4-0 lead in the first period.

"That helped us out to get the momentum going," Mow said. "That kind of put them back on their heels and they never really recovered.

Juneau-Douglas excelled in all phases of the game Saturday. The Bears went 5 for 6 on the power play and also played solid defense. Freshman goaltender Matt Noreen stopped all 19 shots he faced for his second shutout of the year. Saturday's win was the team's third clean sheet of the season.

"Our defensemen did really well," JDHS coach Dave McKenna said. "We can get a little better at moving the puck in-between our defensemen, but for the most part we weren't fishing for pucks. We were getting in the way of the other team."

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Check out video highlights of the Crimson Bears' win over Su Valley at Tim on Sports here.

Miller and Wood scored in the second period while Nick Rutecki, Cole Carnahan and John Carlson all found the net in the third period.

Most of the goals came off the Bears' strong forecheck. Juneau's forwards did a solid job of beating the Rams to pucks in the corners and capitalizing on rebounds. The goals off the forecheck proved extra sweet because of the attention paid to that part of the game in practice.

"We've been going over forechecking and we really want to put a strong forecheck on," Juneau's Chris Budbill said. "It's trying to win the 50-50 battles."

Mow added two assists in the win while John Carlson, Wood, Albert Svensson, Kacy Carlson, Rutecki, Zander Hoke, Budbill and Josh Mayer had one assist each in Saturday's win.

Despite scoring nine goals, Juneau's most impressive play came on the one power play in which it didn't score. Forwards Nolin Ainsworth, Robin Woodby and Mayer, along with defensemen Chris Klawonn and Jake Eames strung at least 15 passes together in the Su Valley zone.

Even though JDHS didn't score, the unit exhibited confidence and cohesion by maintaining possession.

"My jaw hit the ground with that," McKenna said. "That was just phenomenal passing."

On Friday, Juneau-Douglas with stood a close first five minutes of play to down the Rams.

Miller scored a hat trick in the first period while Svensson had two goals and two assists for JDHS.

"At the start of the game (Friday) Su Valley had the advantage and had the puck in our zone the first five minutes," McKenna said. "It was physical play that turned the game in our favor."

Ainsworth scored two goals and two assists and Zane Chapman had a goal in the win.

JDHS outshot Su Valley 35-16 in the win as freshman goaltender Garrett Cheeseman stopped 15 shots for the win.

Juneau-Douglas will close out the home portion of its schedule next weekend with two games against Homer.

"The result is not as important as knowing we gave it our all out there and didn't leave anything in the locker room or practice ice," McKenna said. "As long as we come out with good intensity and give it our best, that's all you can ask for."

• Contact sports editor Tim Nichols at 523-2228 or sports@juneauempire.com.