newsminer.com

FAIRBANKS — Coming off a tough first loss of the season to South Anchorage on Friday, the Lathrop Malemutes came out shooting in their 9-5 win against Eagle River on Saturday at the Big Dipper Ice Arena.

Six seconds into the game, senior Brooks Poe got the puck on the face-off from teammate John Anderson and took it to the net.

“It felt great,” Poe said. “Coming back after our loss yesterday was tough. We felt if we had played to our best, we would have won, so we wanted to come out today and show that we could.”

Twenty-two seconds later, sophomore Taylor Munson swept the puck around the backside of the net and put it in for the Malemutes’ second goal before the game was a minute old.

Then Eagle River answered with Junior Alex Browning sneaking the puck between the feet of the Lathrop goaltender to cut Lathrop’s lead in half.

Lathrop senior Patrick Brady then scored back-to-back goals to end the first period with his team ahead 4-1.

“I was pretty pumped,” Brady said. “This is my first year as a forward.”

Prior to this season Brady was a goalkeeper, but said. “I thought it would be fun to change it up a bit for my senior year.”

Lathrop seemed in control until the Wolves tied at 4-4 as junior Alex Browning and sophomore Ben Russell combined to score three goals in the last 3 minutes, 45 seconds of the second period.

Eagle River took a 5-4 lead early in the third period before Lathrop scored five unanswered goals to secure the win.

Munson got the equalizer with 11:29 remaining, then Jacob Thayer put in the eventual game-winner at 11:06 to put the Malemutes ahead for good.

Brady scored a power-play goal in the final minute to earn a hat trick.

Lathrop assistant coach Togi Letuligasenoa was pleased with the way his team performed.

“Yesterday was a tough loss,” Letuligasenoa said. “But today was the start we wanted.”

He felt that Friday his team just “quit working” and that going up 2-0 early Saturday really boosted Lathrop’s spirits.

Letuligasenoa stressed to the Malemutes that this year is a process and there is plenty to work on. The main goal he has for the rest of the season is to give up no more than two goals a game.