Crimson Bears sweep Golden Bears in second high-scoring shootout

For the second day in a row the Division II Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé Crimson Bears hockey team out-muscled the upper division Bartlett Golden Bears in a 10-6 puck feast that also included 12 penalties by the visitors as they tried everything to win at the Treadwell Ice Arena.

“This is high school hockey,” Bartlett coach Mike Vandenbos said midway through the contest. “I think the refs have done a good job in keeping control of this one. We’re happy to be here. We got into a couple spots where we were in the game. They have got a good barn here and they got a good crowd here, very supportive. It’s a great place.”

Bartlett drew the first score with senior Wyatt Rust hitting at 8:06 of the first period, assisted by classmate Tyler Hatcher.

JDHS struck back twice in succession. Freshman Ryker Nelson scored unassisted at 7:38 and junior Paxton Mertl at 6:31, assisted by seniors Ike Puustinen and Carter Miller, for a 2-1 lead.

Bartlett started their run of penalties with roughly six minutes remaining in the first period and a slashing, a hooking and a roughing call put them down a man, and JDHS junior Elliot Welch scored at 5:31 on a power play assisted by senior Dylan Sowa for a 3-1 lead.

Bartlett would earn a shorthanded goal at 4:58, scored by senior Dylan Beals with Rust assisting, and then tie the score with Beals notching another unassisted at 2:41.

JDHS’ Sowa and Bartlett sophomore Andy Rust would both be sent off the ice with a minute left in the period for roughing.

Bartlett struck first in the second period with A. Rust scoring at 10:17 assisted by W. Rust for a 4-3 lead.

JDHS senior captain Luke Bovitz tied the game at 9:22 with a short-handed slap shot and senior Emilio Holbrook gave the Crimson Bears a 5-4 lead at 7:39 assisted by Bovitz and Welch.

Bartlett tied the game at 7:13 as W. Rust hit unassisted and that would be followed by JDHS senior Xander Smith and Bartlett’s W. Rust being sent to the penalty box for roughing and slashing, respectively.

JDHS took a 6-5 lead as sophomore Drew Cadigan-Mcadoo scored at 5:17 assisted by senior Loren Platt.

Bartlett tied the game again as Beals scored unassisted with 2:06 remaining in the period.

As the stanza clock ran down Bovitz found a puck off a faceoff and scored with 16.8 seconds left, assisted by Smith and Sowa, for a 7-6 advantage.

Bartlett would amass six deserved penalties in the third period including unsportsmanlike conduct three times, tripping, misconduct and game misconduct.

JDHS would earn their three goals of the final period with senior Matthew Plang hitting at 8:39 off a faceoff with assist by Holbrook, Smith scoring at 6:09 assisted by Welch and Bovitz scoring with 38.7 seconds remaining on a power play shot assisted by Sowa and Holbrook for the 10-6 final.

After the game top star of the match with three goals and an assist, Luke Bovitz, was mobbed by young fans outside the locker room.

“It’s nice,” Bovitz said of the adulation put upon him. “It’s pretty cool.”

JDHS’ Welch received the third star of the match and Bartlett’s Beals the second.

Bovitz was asked how he helped keep the team’s composure in the second of two physical games of the weekend against a Division I hockey school.

“Well, I’ve spent a lot of time in the penalty box and I’ve learned that creating problems for the ref isn’t going to help you in any situation,” Bovitz said. “The ref is the final decision and you can’t change it, you’ve just got to accept it and move on and play with it.”

Bovitz noted that 10 goals was good but there was room for improvement.

“Our biggest issue was, both nights, our starts weren’t bringing the intensity that we needed,” he said. “We all know what we need to do we are just having a hard time figuring out how to do it and I think we really reigned in on the third period to finish it.”

JDHS allowed just four shots on their goal in the final 15 minutes, in contrast to 20 in the first two stanzas when senior goalie Caleb Friend stayed strong in the pipes despite a few unlucky bounces.

“There is so much before the goal that determines what is going to happen,” Bovitz said. “It really sucks that a lot of things get pinned on the goalie but there are five guys in front of the goalie and we have to figure out our problems before we can pin it on Caleb.”

Once again Friend stopped over 30 shots on the weekend, including 18 Saturday, a yeoman’s work in any league and valuable against a physical team like Bartlett.

“I told them it was a good battle and way to come out with the win,” JDHS coach Matt Boline said of his post-game talk. “They don’t ask how they ask how many and we got another win, and I think the two wins this weekend put us right around .500. It is a good place to be, it could have easily been the other way around, and then all of a sudden we are looking at three wins and seven losses and a tie, and looks a lot different and feels a lot different.”

The Crimson Bears matched their three penalties from the first night, but Bartlett expanded on Friday’s two whistles against them to record 12, including one that required W. Rust being escorted off the ice.

“It was a really good game,” Boline said. “I think sometimes, even if you don’t agree with a call you just have to go with it. I told the players you have to take the officiating out of the equation, you have to take the other team out of the equation, you just have to worry about our game and focus on that, focus on playing strong defense and put the puck in the net. If we do the simple little things right good things will happen. We only gave up four shots in the third period, that was the goal. That is what the expectation is.”

JDHS had also defeated Bartlett 7-5 on Friday.

The DII Crimson Bears improve to 5-5-1 overall (2-2 in the DII Northern Lights Conference). JDHS had beaten Kodiak 7-2, 5-0 and 9-0 and fallen to Houston 6-1, North Pole 4-2 and 5-2 and Palmer 4-3 and 8-4, and tied with Colony 3-3.

Bartlett is 2-9 overall and in seventh place in the Division I Cook Inlet Conference (1-5). They have defeated Service 5-1 and Homer 7-4 and lost to Dimond 5-2 and 7-2, Soldotna 10-2, Kenai 8-3, Eagle River 4-2, South Anchorage 11-1 and Chugiak 9-1.

• Contact Klas Stolpe at klas.stolpe@juneauempire.com.