There were so many fans at Saturday's Cook Inlet Conference hockey championship that officials let people stand around the outside of the rink, below the bleachers.
It was in front of this deafening, capacity crowd of 1,000 that Chugiak surged past rival Eagle River, 4-1, to claim its second straight conference crown.
The Mustangs took a 2-1 lead on a Luke Momblow deflection in the second period and added two more goals in the third to pull away.
"It was crazy with everybody watching," Momblow said. "It was the biggest crowd I've ever played in front of. I guarantee it. It was pretty great."
[South edges Dimond in OT to claim 3rd place in CIC hockey]
Both teams came out with high energy — a Chugiak player had his stick snap in the first five minutes — but defense prevailed for the game's first 12 minutes.
Then, each team scored within six seconds of each other.
Chugiak's Zach Krajnik gathered a deflection off Eagle River goalie Ryan Gray and hammered in the first goal with three minutes to go in the first period.
"I was lagging behind in case it popped out and Gray just popped it right to me," Krajnik said.
Seconds later, Eagle River's Sutton McDonald exploded up the ice after the puck drop and delivered a strike that tied the game. The game remained tied heading into the locker room.
In the second period, Chugiak regained the lead on Momblow's deflection off a shot from the point by Zach Plucinski.
"I was lucky enough to get in front of it and get a deflection in and have it go past the goaltender," Momblow said.
The Mustangs added two more goals in the third period. One came from John Hammer, who split a pair of defensemen to get in close, and one from Plucinski, who scored unassisted with just over four minutes to go.
Chugiak coach Rodney Wild said he didn't feel comfortable until the closing seconds of the game.
Eagle River's line of McDonald, Joshua Linn and Ben Rinckey "is an explosive line," he said. "You can give up two goals in about a minute and a half if you're not careful. There was no sigh of relief until we're up 4-1 with about 30 seconds to go."
Gray finished with 32 saves for Eagle River and Eric Yancey snagged 22 stops for Chugiak. Wild said his goalie combo of Yancey and Jack Walters have been big for Chugiak all season.
"I firmly believe we have the two best goalies in high school hockey in Eric and Jack," Wild said. "It doesn't matter who's playing, our guys have a lot of confidence in both of them that when we make mistakes they're going to be there to cover up for them."
Wild said he's proud of his team for winning back-to-back CIC titles, but the Mustangs have a bigger goal in mind — the state championship, which begin Thursday in Wasilla.
Last season, the Mustangs beat West in the CIC championship, but they lost to the Eagles in the state title game.
"It's an important title, if you will — the CIC champion is a good thing to have — but it's not our ultimate goal," Wild said. "Last year, we beat West here and then lost to them a week later in state … hopefully we're not done yet."