The Chugiak Mustangs beat their rivals and clinched the No. 2 seed in the Cook Inlet Conference hockey tournament Saturday night at the McDonald Center.
Chugiak beat the Eagle River Wolves 5-2 in the final game of the CIC regular season, breaking open a close game with two goals in a two-minute span in the third period.
The CIC's No. 2 seed was at stake in the game. The Mustangs secured it by scoring three straight goals in the third period.
Ahead 2-1 after two periods, Chugiak used goals by Grant Epple and Andrew Beckett to pull away. Epple scored with 9 minutes, 50 seconds left and Beckett made it 4-1 with 7:57 left.
The Mustangs added insurance with Noah Denny's goal with 4:07 remaining.
Chugiak took a 1-0 lead in the first period with a goal by Tyler Huffer.
Eagle River tied it early in the second period with Aiden Burton's goal, but the Mustang regained the lead, 2-1, on a late strike by Zach Krajnik.
With 63 seconds left in the game, Joshua Linn wrapped up the scoring with a goal for Eagle River.
Chugiak goaltender Jack Walkers stopped 20 shots and Eagle River's Ryan Gray stopped 24.
With the win, Chugiak (9-4-1) moves into a first-round CIC game Tuesday against seventh-seeded East (4-10). Eagle River (7-5-2) gets the No. 5 seed and will play fourth-seeded Service (8-5-1) on Monday. Both games begin at 7:15 p.m. at the McDonald Center.
In other first-round games, top-seeded South (11-2-1) will meet eighth-seeded Bartlett (0-14) on Monday at Ben Boeke, and third-seeded West (9-5) will play sixth-seeded Dimond (5-8-1) on Tuesday. Both games start at 6:30 p.m. at Ben Boeke Arena.
East 13, Bartlett 9
Jake Hayes scored four goals and Laauli Tosi scored three to power East to a 13-9 CIC hockey win over Bartlett in a regular-season finale Saturday at Ben Boeke Arena.
Chase Solberg provided the T-birds with five points on two goals and three assists.
Hat tricks from Cody Bell and Brad Mackin boosted Bartlett.