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Photo by Eric Engman

FAIRBANKS — The North Pole Patriots dominated the Colony Knights Saturday afternoon, putting the equivalent of two touchdowns on the scoreboard in a 14-0 hockey shutout at the Polar Ice Arena.

The Patriots passed the puck around with eight different players scoring one or more goals.

North Pole’s first goal came in the opening minute with senior center Nick Crutcher knocking it in. Less than a minute later, junior right wing DJ Carnley added his first of two goals.

“We tried to just keep it simple and take shots,” Carnley said.

Pressing the Knights’ defense hard, North Pole’s Jordan Pascoe made a heads-up play that put the Patriots up 3-0 at 9:58 into the first period. The first shot initially was blocked by Colony’s Heather Gray, but Pascoe picked up the deflection and scored.

Seven seconds later, senior center Matt Sanford took the puck from the faceoff uncontested to the net to tally the first goal of his hat trick.

The Knights then switched goaltenders and put in Forrest Savel.

After getting their next few shots blocked, the Patriots returned to their scoring ways with junior Vance Bridgman beating all defenders and taking the puck straight to the net to make the score 5-0.

Savel, fighting hard, blocked back-to-back shots from the Patriots only to have the next shot bounce off his pads right to Alex Tilman, who snuck it past him for another goal.

With less than two minutes to play in the first period, the puck seemed to be stuck behind the Colony goal as the Patriots continually cycled while looking for the shot. Finally, with 53 seconds on the clock, Sanford got the puck, circled around the goal, and wrapped it in to send the Patriots into the locker room up 7-0.

“I have to give credit to all the guys,” Sanford said of the score. “I was just in the right place at the right time.”

The Knights came out of intermission recharged on defense, and did not let the Patriots score again until just over four minutes were left in the second period.

Then, back-to-back goals by Bridgman within 32 seconds took the fight out of the Knights and gave North Pole an 11-0 lead.

“Colony is usually known to be a rough team,” Bridgman said. “But I didn’t feel they brought that today.”

Colony made another goalie switch to start the third by inserting sophomore Jason Murak.

The change in goalies seemed to make no difference to sophomore Jared Linnell, as he scored early in the period. Sanford and Linnell provided the final two goals to end the blowout.

Patriots head coach Jason Storey said that despite the lopsided score, his team made a lot of little mistakes.

“We still have a long way to go,” Storey said.

Linnell also said that he and his teammates need to “stop taking penalties.”

Despite the mistakes, the Patriots go into the holidays happy.

“This was our last game before Christmas break,” Bridgman said. “We tried to end on a high note.”

The Patriots now will split into comp teams until the team reunites to play high school games in January.

Monroe triumphs

The Monroe Catholic Rams earned four points in the Greatland Conference hockey standings on Saturday with an 8-3 win over the Su-Valley Rams at the Polar Ice Center.

“After the dismal performance we had on Tuesday at Tri-Valley, we went without pucks for a couple of days, and they seemed to want to get their hands on it today,” Monroe Catholic coach Leo Faro said following the win.

Timmy Johnson led the way for the Rams with three goals and two assists. Eric Ringstad had two goals and three assists and Tyler Holmes registered a goal and three assists.

Dan Bunten garnered a goal and an assist and Kevin Johnson rounded out the Monroe scoring with the first goal of his high school career.

“I think one of the keys today was Kevin Johnson getting his first goal,” Faro said. “He did everything I could ask him to do, and he was rewarded for his efforts.”

Freshman goaltender Sydney Pace stopped 15 shots to pick up the first win of his prep career. Monroe had 29 shots on goal.

Jeffrey Thompson, Zach Casagrande and Jesse LaVelee had a goal apiece for Su-Valley. Thompson and Corey Ambrose had assists.

It was Monroe’s last game prior to the holiday break.

The game was worth four points because Su-Valley had transportation issues and couldn’t get to Fairbanks until Friday. The two teams were scheduled to play on Thursday, but that game was canceled.

Tri-Valley sweeps

The Tri-Valley Warriors posted a pair of Greatland Conference hockey wins over the Kenny Lake Hawks on Friday and Saturday.

The Warriors notched a 5-0 win Friday night, then came back to score a 4-2 win on Saturday morning at Tri-Valley, improving to 6-0 in conference play and 6-4 on the year.

Evan Venachuk had two goals and an assist to lead Tri-Valley’s attack Friday night. Sterling Shreeve, Parker Vacura and Kaz Cizmowski each scored once.

Vacura had two assists, with Paulee Newton and Jesse Arbuckle netting one apice.

Goaltender Dakota Maciver registered the shutout with 25 saves. Kenny Lake netminder David Helkenn had 31 saves.

Venechuk also had two goals and an assist in Saturday’s triumph. Alex Mattielli and Shreeve added goals for the winners. David Townsend had three helpers for the Warriors. Mattielli and Vacura chipped in assists. Maciver made 10 saves.

Garrett Rosencranz and Caleb Helkenn accounted for Kenny Lake’s goals. Both scores were deflected into the net off Tri-Valley players. David Helkenn made 23 saves.