SOLDOTNA — The Soldotna hockey team defeated Juneau-Douglas 4-2 on Thursday in Railbelt Conference play at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex.<\/p>\n
SoHi junior defenseman Aiden Burcham spurred the victory by scoring two goals and also getting an assist. Burcham had a key goal in the third period to stop the momentum of a Crimson Bears comeback.<\/p>\n
The Stars move to 8-6-1 overall and 3-2-1 to kick off a busy weekend of Railbelt action on the central Kenai Peninsula.<\/p>\n
Today, SoHi hosts Juneau again at 6:45 p.m. at the sports complex, while Homer travels to face Kenai Central at the Kenai Multi-Purpose Facility at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n
Saturday, Juneau plays at Kenai at noon, while the Mariners and Stars battle at the sports complex at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n
Soldotna showed little rust coming off the Christmas break as Daniel Heath, assisted by Gehret Medcoff, scored just 48 seconds into the game.<\/p>\n
After that, the Crimson Bears, who had travel difficulties getting to Soldotna, were able to get out of the first period down 1-0.<\/p>\n
In the second period, Burcham started to make his presence felt, assisting on a goal by Boone Theiler and scoring on an assist from Andrew Arthur for a 3-0 lead headed to the final period.<\/p>\n
The Crimson Bears and Sam Bovitz made things interesting at the start of the third. With 11:00 to play, Bovitz scored on an assist from Andre Peirovi. Then with 8:51 to play, Bovitz struck again, this time on the power play and assisted by Camden Kovach and Peirovi.<\/p>\n
Burcham came through again with 3:12 left in the game, firing a slap shot off the boards. The puck kicked off Juneau goalie Brayden Baxter and into the goal. Heath and Marshall DeRaeve got assists.<\/p>\n
Ayden See had 18 saves for the Stars, while Baxter stopped 28 for the Crimson Bears.<\/p>\n
Thursday<\/p>\n
Stars 4, Crimson Bears 2<\/p>\n
Juneau 0 0 2 —2<\/p>\n
Soldotna 1 2 1 —4<\/p>\n
First period — 1. Soldotna, Heath (Medcoff), 0:48. Penalties — none.<\/p>\n
Second period — 2. Soldotna, Theiler (Burcham), 2:14; 3. Soldotna, Burcham (Arthur), 12:21. Penalties — Soldotna 2 for 4:00.<\/p>\n
Third period — 3. Juneau, Bovitz (Peirovi), 4:00; 4. Juneau, Bovitz (Kovach, Peirovi), 6:09; 5. Soldotna, Burcham (Heath, DeRaeve), 11:48. Penalties — Juneau 2 for 4:00; Soldotna 1 for 2:00.<\/p>\n
Shots on goal — Juneau 5-9-6—20; Soldotna 8-10-14—32.<\/p>\n
Goalies — Juneau, B. Baxter (32 shots, 28 saves); Soldotna, See (20 shots, 18 saves).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"