PALMER — Wasilla head coach Bill Sturdevant had a simple message for his squad during the second intermission Friday night.

Shoot the puck.

Apparently, the message was received. Wasilla outshot Palmer 18-3 in the third and scored three unanswered goals to edge the Moose 3-2 in overtime at the Palmer Ice Arena on Friday.

“I told the boys in the locker room we wanted 20 shots in the third period. I knew we had to get more shots if we were going to get one by him,” Sturdevant said, referring to Palmer senior goalie Will Rauchenstein, who stopped 41 of the 43 Wasilla shots he saw. “The only thing we can do is try to put as many pucks on net and hope that one of them goes in.”

The Warriors were able to slip a pair of late shots past the Palmer netminder.

Senior Jade Johnston scored with 90 seconds left in regulation and Michael Johnston posted the game-winner with 3:54 left in overtime to give the Warriors the win and the top seed in the upcoming North Star Conference Championships tournament.

With the Warriors skating on the power play, Michael Johnston took a Trent Wohlers pass and sent a wrist shot from the right circle and put it into the upper shelf of the near side of the Palmer net midway through the extra period.

Wasilla took a time out right before the start of the power play, and during the break the Wasilla coaches told Johnston to position himself on the right circle.

“(The coaches said) Michael you need to go down and look for rebounds or Trent, you pass the puck across,” Johnston said. “We’ve done it a few times on the power play, and it worked today.”

Wohlers skated the puck into the left side of the Palmer defensive zone and sent a sharp pass right in front of Rauchenstein and the crease.

“(Michael) reads that play really well,” Sturdevant said. “He read a fantastic pass.”

Michael Johnston also set up the game-tying goal late in the third period.

With less than two minutes left in regulation, he skated the puck around the back of the Palmer net and centered a pass to Jade Johnston, who scored the game-tying goal.

Michael Johnston said the Warriors tried to put as much pressure as possible on the Palmer defense.

“We just kept trying to go at it,” Johnston said. “Keep getting shots and try to get people in front of (Rauchenstein) so he can’t see.”

Dylan McCree put the Warriors on the scoreboard with a 5-on-3 power-play goal 43 seconds into the second period.

With the two-man advantage, Jade Johnston put a quick shot on goal, and McCree crashed the net to slam the rebound past Rauchenstein.

Stephen Acher and Piers LaFrance each scored first-period goals for Palmer to give the Moose the early 2-0 lead. But the Moose were whistled for three penalties during the final 1:47 of the first.

That’s when Palmer head coach Brad Hanson felt the game starting to change.

“The penalties at the end of the first hurt us,” Hanson said. “I thought that is where the momentum shifted a little bit.”

Acher gave the Moose the 1-0 lead when he redirected the rebound of a Dylan Danielowski shot into the net at the 6:01 mark.

Four minutes later, LaFrance poked a shot past Wasilla goalie Chris Yaskus on a Palmer power play.

The Wasilla win determined the top two seeds of the NSC Championships, which starts Thursday at the Soldotna Sports Center in Soldotna. Wasilla is now the No. 1 seed in the conference, and Palmer will be seeded second.

Both will receive first-round byes in the tourney.

In other action, Kenai edged Soldotna 2-1 and the Kardinals are the third seed in the tourney. Soldotna is seeded fourth, followed by Colony and Homer.

For more on the upcoming tourney, see the Tuesday edition of the Frontiersman.

Wasilla 3, Palmer 2 OT

Friday, Palmer Ice Arena

First period — 1. Palmer- Acher (Danielowski) 6:01; 2. Palmer- LaFrance (Rissew) pp 2:55.

Second period — 3. Wasilla- McCree (J. Johnston, Wohlers) pp 14:17; 4. Wasilla- J. Johnston (M. Johnston) 1:30; 5. Wasilla- M. Johnston (Wohlers, J. Johnston) 3:54.

Shots on goal: Wasilla 14-11-18-3—46, Palmer 14-5-3-0—22; Saves; Wasilla- Yaskus 12-5-3-0—20, Palmer- Rauchenstein 14-10-17-2—43; Power plays: Wasilla 1-for-6, Palmer 1-for-5.