From the time they first laced up their hockey skates, Chris and Melany Luiten's three boys skated together on a backyard rink constructed by their dad.
With "Uncle" Brush Christiansen often on hand to offer advice -- and a few hacks to the shin -- Ryan, Justin and Christian Luiten played on the rink behind their Nunaka Valley home in East Anchorage. Foot-high boards surrounded the ice and later, after the kids began sending slapshots flying into the neighbor's yard, a batting practice cage surrounded the goal.
When not on the backyard ice, the kids headed to Cheney Lake or the Scott Gomez rink at Tikishla Park. In the summer, they could be found playing street hockey on roller blades.
Now the trio plays for the East High hockey team and will lead the Thunderbirds to their first state tournament berth in seven years. After scoring 37 points in each of the past two seasons, Ryan erupted for a 56-point season, including a six-goal game against Eagle River and an eight-point (5 goals, 3 assists) contest against North Pole. Ryan has 32 goals and 24 assists, including nine power-play goals, three short-handed tallies and seven game-winning scores.
Justin was the No. 1 goaltender for the first half of the season before last year's starter, Jeff Thomas, rejoined the team, and is 7-4-1 with a 2.17 goals against average. Christian has been seeing significant minutes as a freshman on the blueline.
"Ryan had some offers to play juniors, to play in other places, but this is the only year he could play with all of his brothers, all of them on the same team," said dad Chris, who played 60 games for UAA in 1987-89. "It is the only time in his life he'll get a chance to do that."
Ryan, who wears the same number his dad wore for the Seawolves (No. 15), started skating when he was 4. He began playing as a forward, moved to defense for three years, then went back to being a forward.
"I didn't like being out of the scoring part of the game," he said.
He's been scoring at a blistering pace this season and had a hand in four of the Thunderbirds' five goals in the Cook Inlet Conference playoffs.
Justin also started hockey as a forward, but became a goaltender when he was 7 during a trip to Fairbanks. His team didn't have a goaltender available and the coach asked if anyone wanted to try the position. Justin stepped in and has been stopping pucks ever since. He had a season-high 34 saves in a 3-3 tie with Dimond early in the season, posted a shutout against Bartlett and assisted on the sixth goal Ryan scored in a 6-4 win over Eagle River.
Christian saw time as a goaltender when he was younger, but didn't like staying in the net for entire games, so he moved to defense.
Christiansen, the former UAA and Service High coach, was a frequent visitor to the Luiten home when the kids were little. He's the godfather of the youngest Luiten, Kendra, who is focusing her athletic skills on soccer instead of hockey.
"Uncle Brush, he always was hard on me," Ryan said. "He'd hack me every time. He said it was to get me tougher. That was his excuse. I just think he wanted to hack me."
Before and after East games, the Luiten family and friends can be found tailgating in their motorhome.
"It's just a fun event, everybody brings something," Chris said. "The parents come in there and tailgate. We get there early and hang out. We'll have the motorhome filled with 10 to 20 people."
The family has deep roots at East. Melany's mother, Janice Lienhart, was one of the first to graduate from the school and Melany's aunt, Sharon Nahorney, helped design the T-bird logo and choose the school colors.
The Thunderbirds got off to a slow start this season, going 1-3-1 in their first five conference games. They were 7-1-1 in their last nine conference games, including wins over Dimond and West and a tie against South.
The strong finish gave them the No. 3 seed in the CIC playoffs, which is where they wound up after opening with a 2-1 win over Chugiak, losing 2-1 to Dimond in the semifinals and beating South 2-1 in triple overtime in the third-place game.
East opens the state tournament against Wasilla at 7:30 tonight at the Menard Memorial Arena in Wasilla. The Thunderbirds beat Wasilla 3-0 during the regular season, but the Warriors haven't lost since, going 7-0-1 in their last eight games.
"Most people are focused on West right now," said Ryan, who plays on East's high-scoring first line along with Cameron Carter and Alex Jackstadt. "It's good we're not on the radar and don't have everybody focused on what we are doing. We can beat any team as long as we come to play and all three lines are coming through."
East last won a state title in 1997, ending a seven-year stretch during which the Thunderbirds won two championships and finished second four times.
Find Richard Larson online at adn.com/contact/rlarson or call 257-4335.
4A State hockey
Menard Memorial Arena
Today's Games
First round
Noon - Lathrop vs. South
2:30 p.m. - West vs. Kenai
5 p.m. - Dimond vs. West Valley
7:30 p.m. - East vs. Wasilla
Small schools State hockey
Menard Memorial Arena
Friday's Games
11:30 a.m. - Tri-Valley vs. Delta Junction
3 p.m. - Hutchison vs. Monroe
By RICHARD LARSON
rlarson@adn.com