The Palmer Moose can party like it’s 1989.
The Moose, no strangers to drama this week, captured their first state hockey championship since 1989 by beating Homer 6-5 in overtime Saturday night in the Division II title game at the Menard Center in Wasilla.
Sophomore Owen Hayes scored the game-winning goal, lifting the Moose to their second state title in school history.
It was Palmer’s second straight overtime win. In Friday’s semifinals, the Moose stormed back from a three-goal deficit to shock top-ranked Soldotna, 4-3.
Homer was seeking its first title, and the Mariners made a serious bid to win it all late in regulation. Down 4-1, they scored three straight goals to tie it with 90 seconds remaining. With 45 seconds left, they seized a 5-4 lead.
But Palmer wasn’t done. Eleven seconds after Homer’s goal, the Moose knotted the score to force overtime, where Hayes provided the heroics.
On Friday, Homer surprised second-seeded Juneau 3-0 to return to the small-schools championship game for the first time since 2005.
Juneau bounced back Saturday to beat Soldotna 3-1 and claim third place. In the fourth-place game, North Pole scored a third-period goal for a 2-1 squeaker over Glennallen/Kenny Lake.
Three decades ago when Palmer beat Wasilla 4-3 to capture its first state championship, all of Alaska’s high schools played in the same classification for hockey. Now, there are two divisions -- Division II for smaller schools and Division I for bigger schools. Division I will crown its champion Saturday in Wasilla.
As the Division II champ, Palmer receives a berth in the Division I tournament. If the Moose turn down the bid, the berth will go to one of three other teams — Division II runnerup Homer, the sixth-place team from the Cook Inlet Conference (Chugiak) or the third-place team from the Mid-Alaska Conference (Lathrop/West Valley).
The Alaska School Activities Association has established seeding criteria to determine which of those three candidates would join the tournament in the event Palmer declines its bid.
The headline and the story have been updated to add the name of the player who scored the game-winning goal, and the story has been updated with other details about the game.
ASAA/First National Bank Division II hockey championships
Saturday’s results
Palmer 6, Homer 5 OT, championship
Juneau 3, Soldotna 1, third place
North Pole 2, Glennallen/Kenny Lake 1, fourth place