Earlier this year, a trio of Alaska youth hockey teams advanced to the 2026 Chipotle-USA Hockey National Championship tournament for their respective classifications, and this week they’ll take the ice with hopes of bringing home some more hardware.

The Team Alaska program is sending a couple of teams to nationals with the 16U Tier 1 girls squad heading to Buffalo, New York, to compete with the top 16 teams while the 18U Tier 1 boys team will be among the top 16 heading to Las Vegas, Nevada. Both tournaments got underway Tuesday and run through Sunday.

Both teams notched notable victories in their regional tournaments. The 16U girls team hoisted the trophy in the 2026 Girls Pacific District Regional Tournament last month, with games played at the Kelley Create Ice Center and Ben Boeke Ice Arena in Anchorage. With a 2-0 victory over the visiting Seattle Jr. Thunderbirds, they clinched the first Girls Tier 1 championship since the program formed three years ago.

Svea Dorman scored the first goal with 3:22 left in the second period off of assists from Ayla-Marie Sanders and Lilly Kettenacker. At the 13:15 mark in the third period, Kettenacker bagged an insurance goal thanks to assists from Dorman and Alexa Williams. Between the pipes, goaltender Madelynn Derleth recorded 19 saves to secure the shutout.

The Boys Tier 1 Pacific District Regional Tournament was held in San Jose, California, from Feb. 26 through March 1. All five Alaska teams advanced to the regional title games, marking the first time that had happened in the same season in state youth hockey history.

The 18U Tier 1 team became the first Alaska squad to win the regional title in that division since the Alaska Jr. Aces in 2013. They faced off against the Anaheim Jr. Ducks and prevailed 4-3 in an overtime thriller that took a shootout to decide. After digging themselves out of an early 2-0 hole, Team Alaska rallied to tie the game at 3-3 with 36.8 seconds left in the third period.

Dawson Norene found the back of the net via the top corner for the game-tying goal off an assist by Reid Carlson. After a scoreless overtime period, the teams competed in a three-man shootout. Toby Jones scored the lone goal to give Team Alaska the win, and goaltender Keagon O’Bryan helped bring it home by denying all three of the Jr. Ducks’ attempts.

Coming off being crowned the 2025-26 18U Tier 2 Alaska state hockey champions, the Alaska Oilers will travel to West Chester, Pennsylvania. They will be competing in the Youth Tier II 18U tourney on the Ice Line Quad Rinks with action running from Wednesday through Sunday.

On the Tier 2 girls side, the following teams will be competing in nationals as well from Wednesday through Sunday: Fairbanks Arctic Lions and Alaska All Stars in the 19U division in Rockland, Massachusetts, and the 16U Alaska All Stars in St. Louis, Missouri.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court appears poised to rule in favor of the Republican National Committee that all ballots must be received on Election Day to be counted.

In a case argued Monday, the RNC challenges a Mississipi law that allows ballots postmarked on or before Election Day to arrive up to five days later.

Alaska accepts postmarked ballots that arrive up to 10 days after Election Day – 15 days if mailed from overseas. And, for Alaska, the implications of the Supreme Court ruling could extend beyond mailed ballots.

The RNC case could be consequential for the midterm elections, when control of Congress is at stake. While people of both parties vote by mail, more permissive rules for it are perceived to help Democrats, especially since President Trump rails against the practice.

U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer argued that counting ballots that arrive late violates the federal law that sets the Tuesday following the first Monday of November as Election Day for the whole country.

“All ballots have to be received and the ballot box has to close on Election Day,” he said.

In Alaska’s last general election, more than 50,000 ballots arrived by mail. The Division of Elections couldn’t immediately say how many of those arrived in the 10 days after Election Day but it appears to be many thousand.

Sometimes, even Alaska ballots cast in person on Election Day aren’t received the same day. The village of Atqasuk , on the North Slope, tried to phone in its 2024 election results but couldn’t get through to the Division of Elections. The mailed ballots arrived nine days later.

Alaska Attorney General Stephen Cox cited the Atqasuk episode in a friend-of-court brief he filed in the Mississippi case.

“Alaska asks this Court to consider how its rule here will apply in all States—including Alaska, where ‘receiving’ a ballot isn’t always as simple as walking to a precinct or driving a few hours to pick up a ballot box,” he wrote.

Pat Redmond, co-president of the Alaska League of Women Voters, said Alaska has a secure process for mailed ballots. She believes the current deadline is fair and allows remote places necessary time to deliver their ballots.

“Not every place has electronic transmission,” said Redmond, who has also served as an election worker. If all ballots have to be in on Election Day “then those people, their ballots don’t count, and that’s disenfranchising people.”

Attorney Scott Stewart, defending Mississippi’s ballot deadline, told the justices that it’s wrong for the Trump administration to suggest that late-arriving ballots are subject to fraud.

“Obviously, they’ve sounded the anti-fraud theme,” Stewart said. “They haven’t cited a single example of fraud from post-Election Day ballot receipts.”

Late-counted ballots have swung several statewide contests in Alaska.

•The 2020 ballot measure creating Alaska’s ranked choice voting system and open primaries was losing on election night but ultimately won.

•Post-Election Day counts gave Sen. Lisa Murkowski the lead over challenger Kelly Tshibaka in 2022, and Murkowski’s lead grew further after second- and third-choice votes were tallied.

•In 2024, a measure to repeal ranked choice voting was ahead on election night but narrowly lost in later counts.

Late-counted ballots typically include an unknown number of ballots that arrived before Election Day, too. Still, despite no evidence of wrongdoing, supporters of the losing campaign have sometimes alleged fraud.

The Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling in the Mississippi case this summer. An attorney for the Republican National Committee told the justices a June ruling would allow states to change their ballot rules in time for the November election.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (InvestigateTV) — Staff at the Alaska Zoo performed a root canal on one of its polar bears after the bear broke a canine tooth.

Kova, 4, shares an enclosure with another polar bear named Cranbeary. The two have toys, treats and a large pool where Kova likes to take her morning swim.

Curator Sam Lavin noticed something was wrong when Kova’s behavior changed.

“Kova is a very interactive and busy bear and she just seemed kind of off. She was pawing at her mouth a little bit,” Lavin said.

Lavin suspected a tooth issue and asked Kova to open her mouth for a closer look.

“We could see that she had broken one of her canines and there’s any number of ways she could have done that,” Lavin said.

An X-ray confirmed the diagnosis. Zoo staff consulted with a veterinary specialist outside Alaska, sent the X-rays and received advice on how to proceed.

“We went with a local doctor to do the work,” Lavin said.

An endodontist who normally operates on humans was part of the large team that performed the root canal on the fully sedated 450-pound bear.

“Everybody knew ahead of time what their role was and what to do and where to be and it was so well planned out and everybody worked so well together,” Lavin said.

The procedure went smoothly.

“She feels so much better,” Lavin said.

The zoo said Kova quickly recovered and is back with her playmate Cranbeary.

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