Ice is ice, but skating on the home sheet is always special, and the Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé Crimson Bears will play their first home game of the 2024-25 season at 7 p.m. Friday at Treadwell Ice Arena against the final opponent from last year’s state tournament, the North Pole Patriots. The two teams play again at 3 p.m. Saturday.
“They are a good team and it should be a fairly even match both games this weekend,” JDHS coach Matt Boline said. “They have an exceptional goaltender and we will have to do what we can to put pucks in the net.”
JDHS defeated North Pole 5-1 to take fourth place at the ASAA Hockey State Championships last March, finishing with a 12-9-1 record.
Three of those five goal scorers return — seniors Matthew Plang and Loren Platt and sophomore Stahly Sheehan.
Also returning are leading senior scorers Luke Bovitz, Dylan Sowa and Emilio Holbrook and classmates Ike Puustinen, Carter Miller, Zander Smith, Angel Aranda-Jackson and goaltender Caleb Friend. Bovitz was an all-conference selection.
The two Division II teams also played to a 6-6 tie earlier in the last season.
JDHS (1-1-1 overall) is in the Northern Lights Conference with state runner-up Soldotna, Kodiak, Homer, Kenai and Palmer.
North Pole (4-1-0 OA) is in the Aurora Conference with defending state champ Houston, Monroe, Tri-Valley and Delta.
The two teams had a chance to check each other out last weekend at Palmer’s Stars & Stripes Showdown.
“Beginning of the season tournament,” Boline said. “It gives a good invite into what the team needs are with conference competition.”
While most of the NLC was in the tournament, JDHS only played Kodiak but got to see other teams matching up against them. The Crimson Bears also played against AC foe Houston and DI team Colony from the Railbelt Conference.
“It helps us figure out what it will take when we play each one,” Boline said. “Best of all it is the first look at how each player fits into different roles on the team. Graduating several players in key roles on the team last season leaves some holes to fill.”
JDHS opened tourney play last Thursday with a 7-2 win over Kodiak.
“Kodiak was a great ‘shake-down’ cruise,” Boline said. “Our leaders from last year picked up where they left off. All of the younger players with little or no previous varsity experience got a chance to get their feet wet.”
The scoring highlights started in the second period with junior Elliot Welch scoring at 13:26, assisted by Bovitz; Bovitz scored at 11:16 assisted by Holbrook; Bovitz scored at 7:45 assisted by Sowa and Holbrook; Holbrook scored at 4:56 assisted by Sowa and Bovitz.
“Welch got the scoring started every game,” Boline said.
In the third period, Sowa scored at 14:26 assisted by Bovitz; Bovitz scored at 8:26 assisted by Holbrook and Welch; and Bovitz scored with 10 seconds remaining to play on assists by Sowa and Holbrook.
Friend only faced six shots and stopped five while sophomore Taylor Petrie faced three shots and stopped two. The Crimson Bears put 56 shots on the Kodiak keeper. JDHS had just one penalty (interference) and Kodiak three (boarding, crosschecking, crosschecking).
Other opening scores included West Anchorage 4, Colony 1; Houston 4, Soldotna 4; West Valley 3, Kenai 2; North Pole 5, Wasilla 2; South Anchorage 6, Palmer 4.
JDHS next fell to Houston 6-1 on Friday.
“Houston was the state champion from last year,” Boline said. “They have some players with explosive offensive ability. We struggled to keep up with their top guns the whole game and we couldn’t provide enough offensive play to take very many shots. Made the Houston goaltender’s job easy and it showed on the scoreboard.”
Welch scored unassisted with 44 seconds remaining in the second period.
Friend faced 47 shots on goal, while the Crimson Bears had 18 pucks put on the Houston keeper. JDHS registered just two penalties (crosschecking, roughing) compared to five for the Hawks (slashing, head contact, highsticking, holding, tripping).
Other Friday scores included SOHI 5, NP 2; WV 5, COL 3; KEN 4, SA 3; WA 6, WAS 2; PAL 11, KOD 0.
JDHS ended play Saturday with a 3-3 tie against Colony.
“Colony was our best game of the tournament,” Boline said. “They are a Division I team. We jumped out to an early lead 3-0… We got into some penalty trouble in the second period and let the Knights crawl back in to tie the game late in the second. In the third, we locked down the defense and laid down some heavy fire on the Colony goaltender but couldn’t get one through.”
The Crimson Bears’ three goals came in the first period. Welch scored unassisted at 13:12; Miller scored at 11:08 assisted by sophomore Bryden Roberts and Sowa scored at 5:36 assisted by Bovitz.
Friend stopped 20 shots on goal. The Crimson Bears put 31 pucks against the Colony net. JDHS had two penalties (interference, interference) and the Knights two (hooking, roughing).
Other Saturday scores included NP 9, KOD 1; SA 0, HOU 0; WAS 2, KEN 1; WA 5, PAL 2.
• Contact Klas Stolpe at klas.stolpe@juneauempire.com.
