WASILLA — After suffering a pair of close losses at the hands of Wasilla this season, the Dimond boys hockey team finally got on the right side of a 2-1 decision Saturday. The Lynx came from behind in the final period of the Division I high school state hockey championship game to beat Wasilla, clinching their ninth title in program history and the first since 2018.
“I’ve got a great group of kids that have played well all year and they had a great game tonight,” Dimond coach Dennis Sorenson said.
Trailing 1-0 at the end of the second period, Dimond didn’t just avenge the pair of losses that they suffered at the hands of the Warriors during the regular season, they flipped the script from the previous outcomes. All three games resulted in a 2-1 victory except this time it was the Lynx on the winning side.
A packed house at Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Complex witnessed a somewhat sloppy slugfest that saw both teams squander prime scoring opportunities, especially in the opening period. Warriors goaltender and all-tournament team nominee, Jakob Barcelona, was seemingly under siege for two-thirds of the first period but held the Lynx scoreless through the first 30 minutes of game action.
“We came out flying and couldn’t score. Then we fell behind one to nothing and got a little rattled and players started trying to be individuals,” Sorenson said.
It didn’t take long for Dimond to tie the game up after senior Tristan Berntsen scored an unassisted goal just 70 seconds into the third period.
“We knew we were coming out and taking this game.” Berntsen said. “We were all energy after it went in.”
The Lynx were able to extend their lead a little less than four minutes later on what would go on to be the game-winning goal from sophomore Tyson Jones.
Jones was so overcome with emotion and adrenaline in the moment that he didn’t even remember making the play.
“I just kind of blacked out and hit the puck hoping it’d go in and it did,” he said.
This marked the epic completion of Jones’ first year playing hockey at the high school level. He was home-schooled as a freshman and just missed the sign-up deadline to participate last year. Jones began the year on junior varsity before getting pulled up to varsity in December.
“My first game was kind of intimidating because I had never played varsity,” Jones said. “Playing varsity and getting to know the environment was really fun and I can’t wait until next year.”
Sorenson believes the key to his team’s comeback was their ability to settle down and focus on getting the game-tying goal before looking ahead to taking the lead.
“Once we got into the second period break and calmed the kids down even being down one to nothing, we knew if we could get one, we might be lucky enough to get a second,” Sorenson said. “We got lucky enough to get a second and held on at the end.”
Sorenson has been at the helm of the program for the last 31 years and has led the Lynx to six state titles and 15 championship game appearances overall.
“We’ve had more runners-up than championships so I’m pretty happy to get the championship,” Sorenson said.
The Lynx title run was nearly derailed when they were disqualified from competing in the CIC regional tournament earlier this month. The team forfeited a pair of regular-season games in which a player participated who was academically ineligible. The infraction was determined to be inadvertent and Dimond received an at-large bid to the state tournament.
Bernsten said to overcome that adversity and finish what they set out to accomplish was a momentous achievement for the team.
“It’s huge especially with everything that is going on.” Berntsen said. “Miscommunication with administration almost ruined out entire season so its great to come out and win it.”