The West Anchorage High School junior varsity boys hockey team tied Chugiak JV 3-3. The game took place Friday, January 15th at 5 p.m. at the Ben Boeke Ice Arena.

The West JV team was proud to have tied, but were not pleased with the way they were playing. Considering the score, the Eagles thought they could have played much better. “I’m not beat up about the score, but as a team I think we could have cleaned up our passes and scored a lot more,” said Jeremy Hanson, a defensemen on the team. Hanson is junior this year, and began playing hockey his freshman year.

The first goal was scored by Chugiak’s Tim Schuerger with 2 minutes and 44 seconds left in the first period. Two minutes later another goal was scored by West’s 5’10” defenseman Niklas Vlahovich, assisted by sophomore Santiago Rios. Leaving the score at 1-1 at the top of the second period. This goal marked Vlahovich’s first goal of the season, as well as making Rio’s assist his second point of the hockey season.

During the last match-up between West and Chugiak, West High lost 0-3, so the team has seen much improvement. “I have been able to see lots of growth in the team this year compared to last year, and from the beginning of the season,” says Brooke Badura, a junior at west, and one of the team’s managers. This is Badura’s first year managing the West JV hockey boys, but says she watched almost every game last year and says they’ve gotten much better.

With 2 minutes and 34 seconds left in the second quarter, Nelson Redman makes a shot with an assist by Gavin Thaggard and Vlahovich. Ezra Dan enters the penalty box for being too rough with seven minutes left in the second quarter.

West, with an eventful third quarter, received four penalties, due to fights with Chugiak. With West down by one point, Michael Hanson got excused out of the game for misconduct, and Rios’ gets a double penalty for both playing rough and misconduct. “I should have fought less and focused on scoring, I was playing too rough and I should have cleaned up my skills” says Rios.

It was an intense game, with lots of tension. Redman once again came through with a goal in the last 20 seconds of the game, tying up the score 3-3 against the Chugiak Mustangs. “Compared to the last time we played Chugiak, we did great today, and I’m really proud of the team,” added Hanson. Although their season hasn’t been full of wins, the West High JV hockey team has played their hearts out, and have had fun doing it.