newsminer.com

FAIRBANKS — The Alaska Icebreakers earned the championship trophy of the Anaheim Fall Classic girls hockey tournament the hard way Sunday afternoon in California.

After giving up the game-tying goal in the final minute of regulation, the Icebreakers won the Age 16-19 division of the tournament in a shootout against the host Anaheim Lady Ducks.

“The girls played excellent hockey and worked hard all weekend,” coach Jayson Kowalchuk said in a telephone interview Sunday evening. “They played good hockey and got better with each game.”

With the Icebreakers clinging to a 3-2 lead in the third period, Anaheim pulled its goalie with 1:20 remaining and tied the game with 50 seconds remaining.

After a scoreless 5-minute overtime that featured 4-on-4 hockey, the game went to a shootout.

Fairbanks goalie Katrina Lydon stopped all three Anaheim shooters, while Whitney Wivoda scored on the second shot to give the Fairbanks skaters the victory. Zoe Kurth took the first shot of the shootout for the Fairbanks team and Dayna Colang had the third. Both shooters hit the post, according to Kowalchuk.

Wivoda was the tournament’s most valuable player and Lydon, who made 33 saves in the championship game, had a .943 saves percentage in the five games she played.

In the championship game, the Icebreakers opened the scoring on a power-play goal by Kayla Parsons that was set up by Kurth and Kiana Nauheim.

Anaheim tied the score at the end of the first period and took the lead in the second, but the Icebreakers evened things at 2-2 when Kurth found the back of the net off an assist from Wivoda.

Wivoda put the Icebreakers in front about 5 minutes into the third period off an assist from Colang. That lead stood up until the final minute of regulation.

Rounding out the roster of Icebreakers who made the trip to Anaheim are Amber Yates, Keegan Thompson, Blaque Lewis, Rackell Kowalchuk, Gus Gillitzer, Kate Burns and Kristie Barton.

Kowalchuk’s assistant coaches are Shawn Lundgren and Togi Letuligasenoa.

Most of the teams the Icebreakers faced in the tournament will be in Fairbanks next March for the USA Hockey Pacific District Tournament.

“By going to this tournament we’ve proven that we can be right in there any of these teams,” Kowalchuk said.