"Goal, goal, goal!"

The chanting from the Eagle River fans was deafening as the refs conferred. They'd initially waved off the goal scored by captain Connor Sperry at 3:24 in the third period that would have tied Dimond 2-2.

Then, the arena came alive as the head referee indicated the goal would be counted. The No. 7- seeded Eagle River was looking for a major upset, with the real possibility of knocking the No. 2-seeded Dimond of its block.

Eagle River's senior goalie Kyle Haken came up solid with 28 saves for the game. The untimely slashing penalty received by freshman defense Bryan Grant with 1:45 left in the third put Eagle River on the defense. Dimond's Daniel Roberts, working the man advantage, scored the game-winning goal with just 24 seconds left in the game, his second of the night.

Goals for the night also were scored by Alex Browning for Eagle River and Dimond's Kody Dubie. Dimond goes on to take their seat in the state championship, where four out of eight teams will fight for state title.

Dimond 3, Eagle River 2

Dimond 2 0 1-3

Eagle River 0 1 1-2

First period-1) Dimond,

Roberts (un) 8:39; 2) Dimond, Dubie (Arnold, Roberts) :16.

Penalties-none.

Second period-3) ER,

Browning (un) 8:14. Penalties-

Dimond 3 for 12 minutes, ER 3 for 6.

Third period-4) ER,

Sperry (un) 3:24; 5) Dimond,

Roberts (Clapper, Fairchild) :24.

Penalties-ER 1 for 2.

Goalies – Dimond, Rubey

4-4-5 – 13; ER, Haken 10-7-11 – 28.

Thursday, Jan. 28

Eagle River 8, Bartlett 0

Eagle River 4 2 2-8

Bartlett 0 0 0-0

First period- 1)ER, Russell (un)

10:10; 2) ER, Russell (Wood,

Browning) 3:34; 3) ER, Younger (Ghan, Wescott) 2:28; 4) Younger (Grant, Grandorff) 1:08. Penalties –

ER 1 for 2 minutes, Bartlett –

3 for 6.

Second period- 5)ER, Grandorff (un) 14:19; 6)ER, Browning (Russell, Grandorff) 5:11. Penalties – ER 5 for

10, Bartlett 2 for 4.

Third period- 7)ER, McDonough

(Bouwens, Grandorff) 10:16; 8)ER,

Younger (Ghan) 0:54. Penalties – ER

3 for 14, Bartlett 5 for 26.

Goalies – ER, Haken 6-7-5 – 18;

Bartlett, DeBoer 25-7-14 – 46.

This article published in The Alaska Star on Thursday, February 4, 2010.