It\u2019s 7 a.m. at Treadwell Ice Arena. The Juneau-Douglas High School hockey team unlaces their boots after their last regular season practice.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve been here before. Every last sliver of ice time has dried up. Every coaching adjustment made. Every drill run, sprint endured and scenario envisioned.<\/p>\n
Only the playoffs loom for the Mid Alaska Conference\u2019s second seed. Though heading to the Fairbanks-based MAC playoffs with three teams left to contend with \u2014 and a state tournament berth on the line \u2014 the Crimson Bears say they only have their own expectations to compete with.<\/p>\n
To them, it\u2019s not about the matchup, but the mentality.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter who we\u2019re gonna play. We aren\u2019t looking too much at the matchups,\u201d junior forward Joseph Monsef said after practice Wednesday. \u201cWe\u2019re focusing on ourselves and not worrying about who we play.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s as much about mentality as anything else, having enough confidence in each other, the team, the program,\u201d coach Luke Adams said. \u201cWe have to play to our inner egos and put the team first.\u201d<\/p>\n
Juneau-Douglas (3-3 in MAC) will play two games this weekend: one Friday and one Saturday. MAC top seed West Valley, third seed North Pole and fourth seed Lathrop lie in wait at Fairbanks\u2019 Patty Ice Arena.<\/p>\n
As the No. 2 seed in the MAC playoffs, JDHS will first face the winner of a Thursday game between North Pole and Lathrop.<\/p>\n
Whoever prevails out JDHS\u2019 Friday semifinal will play No. 1 seed West Valley on Saturday for the MAC conference championship. The winner of that game will be the MAC\u2019s No. 1 seed at the state tournament; the loser, the No. 2 seed.<\/p>\n
The state tournament takes place Feb. 9-11 in Wasilla.<\/p>\n
With a mixed bag of results against MAC competition, the Crimson Bears couldn\u2019t be more in the middle of the MAC pack. JDHS beat Lathrop twice, lost to West Valley twice and split a pair of contentious games with conference foe North Pole.<\/p>\n
Though turning their competitive eye inward in preparation, Adams said the team wants a West Valley matchup.<\/p>\n
\u201cWest Valley is just a different animal in the Mid Alaska Conference. In our history, we have yet to beat them, but that\u2019s the matchup we\u2019re hoping for. We\u2019re hoping to get in that game and test ourselves,\u201d Adams said. \u201cIt\u2019s always fun to compete against a skilled and disciplined team. They\u2019re a powerhouse in the conference.\u201d<\/p>\n
Riding a pair of big conference wins against Lathrop last weekend, JDHS is peaking at the right time. They\u2019re the healthiest they\u2019ve been all season, said Adams.<\/p>\n
Monsef said competition level at practice lately has exceeded expectations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe definitely took a dip mid-season but we\u2019re peaking at the right time,\u201d Monsef said. \u201c\u2026 Our competition level right now is high. The younger kids are pushing the older guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
In their 7-0 and 9-1 wins over Lathrop last weekend, JDHS got a few players on the scoreboard they are looking to build up. Adams said senior forward Quin Gist\u2019s \u201cgolden touch\u201d was handy in those games.<\/p>\n
Gist had two goals in their 9-1 win and a hat-trick in their 7-0 victory. They\u2019ll look to capitalize on his offensive production moving forward.<\/p>\n
Monsef said the team has to win their 50\/50 puck battles to prevail against a North Pole or a West Valley.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t bow out early. It\u2019s the small things that matter the most when you\u2019re facing competition that\u2019s so close to your skill level,\u201d Monsef said.<\/p>\n
Adams fears that North Pole \u2014 slighted with the No. 3 spot after beating JDHS once and losing once \u2014 might have the underdog edge in a possible matchup.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the biggest things if we play North Pole is that we split with them and we got the better seed, so they might have that underdog mentality. I\u2019ve been telling this to the team all week, you can never underestimate an underdog. They want what we want and they\u2019re hungry,\u201d Adams said.<\/p>\n
Outside of matchup considerations, discipline will be key for success on the weekend, Adams said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to be disciplined in a number of ways,\u201d Adams said. \u201cSimple things with efficiency. We want to play our game which may not be the prettiest all the time but we have to play to our strengths.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last year the Crimson Bears made it to the state tournament as the MAC\u2019s No. 2 seed behind West Valley. Their next program milestone will be to win a state tournament game, should they make it there.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like where we\u2019re at, we\u2019re peaking at the right time. It just depends if the peak is enough to get us by,\u201d said Adams.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Contact reporter Kevin Gullufsen at 523-2228 or kevin.gullufsen@juneauempire.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s 7 a.m. at Treadwell Ice Arena. The Juneau-Douglas High School hockey team unlaces their boots after their last regular season practice. They\u2019ve been here before. Every last sliver of ice time has dried up. Every coaching adjustment made. Every drill run, sprint endured and scenario envisioned. Only the playoffs loom for the Mid Alaska […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":31063,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-31062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31062"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=31062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}