The Team Alaska 16U Tier 1 Girls won the Regional Championship for the 2025-26 season. (Photo provided by Matt Thompson)
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.
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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.
Team Alaska 18U Tier 1 became the first Alaskan 18U Tier 1 team to win the Regional Championship since 2013. (Photo provided by Matt Thompson)
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.
The 2025-2026 18U Tier 2 Alaska State Hockey Champion Alaska Oilers. (Photo provided by Alaska State Hockey Association)
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.
JUNEAU, Alaska (KTUU) – The Supreme Court of Alaska will be taking up the case of the State of Alaska, Division of Elections v. Daniel J. Sullivan, Jr.
The oral arguments will be held Monday at 10 a.m. via Zoom, according to an order and opening notice.
The document also specifies that a decision is expected to be made before noon on Tuesday.
According to documents from the Division of Elections, the state must start printing ballots at noon on the same day.
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This comes after an Anchorage Superior Court Judge ordered Dan J. Sullivan on to the ballot Friday.
See a spelling or grammar error? Report it to web@ktuu.com
A new home under construction in Potter Valley in Anchorage. (Loren Holmes / ADN)
This June, two very different offers reach Alaska families, and both amount to the same thing: $10,000. The difference is everything.
Bill Walker, running for governor, would hand every eligible Alaskan a one-time $10,000 check and then end the Permanent Fund dividend for good. Ask one question: Where does his $10,000 come from?
It comes from the Permanent Fund, the people’s own money and the savings Alaskans built for their children. Walker would spend that endowment once to pay Alaskans to give up the yearly dividend forever.
Think about what that does. It cancels the annual check that gives a family a reason to keep an Alaska address and replaces it with a single payout. You hand people their own savings, call it a gift and cut the tie that held them here in the same motion. It is the oldest mistake in governing money: raid what you have saved to buy a moment’s applause and call the spending generosity.
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A plan that spends the people’s savings to send the people away is not bold. It is foolish.
Now consider the other $10,000. Through Alaska Housing Finance Corp., the state offers families up to $10,000 to build a new, energy-efficient home. AHFC raids nothing. It earns its own way. Over the years, it has returned more than $2 billion to the state treasury, and it spends some of that income the way any good business does: to win a customer.
Here, the customer is an Alaskan who wants to own a home, put down roots and stay.
That is the oldest sound move in business: Invest a little of what you earn to bring in someone who stays. The homeowner remains, the community gains a family and the corporation keeps earning. The money spent comes back. A plan that puts earnings to work to bring people home is not charity. It is clever.
Same amount. Opposite source. Opposite wisdom. One spends savings; the other spends earnings. One pays Alaskans to leave; the other pays them to stay. One empties the state; the other fills it.
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This Homeownership Month, the choice is the size of a single check, and the whole question is where the check comes from and what it asks of you. Ten thousand dollars of your own fund, to wave you goodbye. Or $10,000, earned and reinvested, to help you stay and build.
Evan Swensen is the publisher of Publication Consultants in Anchorage and the author of “What’s the Money For: A Permanent Fund Mortgage Proposal.”
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