Lower seeds West, sparked by Michael Curran's power-play hat trick, and South, spearheaded by Jeremy Swayman's shutout and Dyllan Beloy's late goal, knocked off higher seeds Thursday night in the Cook Inlet Conference hockey semifinals.
Curran shined in fourth-seeded West's 7-4 win over regular-season champion Service at Ben Boeke Arena. Swayman and Beloy buoyed third-seeded South's 1-0 win over second-seeded Dimond at the McDonald Center in Eagle River.
All four semifinalists previously qualified for next week's state tournament in Wasilla, but they were still alive for a conference playoff title and seeding for the state tournament also was at stake.
West and South will play for the CIC championship Saturday at 6:30 p.m. at Ben Boeke. Service and Dimond will play for third place Friday at 6:30 p.m. at Ben Boeke.
West fell twice to Service in the regular season -- granted, just 3-1 and 3-2 in overtime -- but generated a goal explosion Thursday.
After Service's Jacob McVay scored in the opening minute of the third period to cut West's lead to 5-4, Curran answered with two power-play strikes inside the next eight minutes.
James Batman and Kevin Hodsdon each furnished West one goal and one assist, Dimitry Hamm contributed three assists and Christopher Alexakis stopped 31 shots. Dawson Burgess and Dawson Ellingworth also scored goals for the Eagles.
Tyler Millar generated three assists for Service, which also got goals from Luke Carlson, Brandon Vukasin and Jack Newhouse. Cougars goaltender Ronan Klancher made 17 saves.
In South's victory over Dimond, the game remained scoreless until less than five minutes remained in the third period. Beloy scored off a helper from Noah Ashley.
Swayman stopped 28 shots for the Wolverines and Dimond's Chris Gardeline made 14 saves.