The South Anchorage hockey team celebrates its victory over West Valley in the championship game of the Division I Hockey Tournament at Sullivan Arena on Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026. (Chris Bieri / ADN)

In sports, the heroes on championship teams who make the pivotal or ultimately game-winning play to put the team in position to achieve greatness sometimes come from the most unsuspecting players.

On the car ride to Sullivan Arena on Saturday night for the 2025-26 ASAA state championship game, South Anchorage high school hockey coach Daniel Ramsey pondered who that person might be for the top-seeded Wolverines as they prepared to take on West Valley for the second time this season.

“As coaches you think it’s going to be someone who maybe not really has contributed on the scoresheet as much,” he said.

With the team on the cusp of completing an undefeated season, the answer wound up being junior Oliver Zuber.

Zuber broke what was a scoreless defensive stalemate by scoring the lone goal of the game in the opening seconds of a power play in the third period, leading South to a 1-0 win.

“He’s got Devin Berg and Thomas Gularte (on his line), they kind of light the lamp all the time but then Zuber gets the credit on that one,” Ramsey said. “It’s just so rewarding for him and for our team.”

The moment felt even more like destiny when Zuber admitted he just happened to be at the right place at the right time to make the most of his opportunity.

“They were playing strong defensively, we couldn’t break through but knew eventually we would, so we just kept going,” he said. “I wasn’t supposed to be there but the puck fell right to me, I got lucky (and) buried it.”

After the puck went into the back of the net, Zuber briefly thought about going to the glass in front of the fans to celebrate but realized it wasn’t his alone.

“The team has been there the entire time,” he said. “These are the boys I did it with, so they deserved to be celebrated with.”

That score came with more than nine minutes left in the game, so the job was far from done as the Wolfpack were merely one goal away from tying the game.

“The belief never faltered,” Zuber said. “In the locker room after every period, we knew we had it in us. We went undefeated in the regular season, but this isn’t the regular season. Coming in, everybody was equal and we proved we’re the best team.”

A huge factor that ensured West Valley was kept scoreless for all three periods was the incredible play of South junior goalie Jaeger Huelskoetter.

“He’s been lights-out all year,” Zuber said. “All the credit to him. We couldn’t have done it without him.”

West Valley’s Levi Gagnon tries to avoid South Anchorage skater during the Alaska Division I State Hockey Tournament championship game on Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026 at Sullivan Arena. (Chris Bieri / ADN)

Huelskoetter finished with 22 saves to secure his sixth shutout of the season and the program’s first state title since 2019.

“It’s awesome and you always want to get the shutout and it’s really easy when all the guys in front of me are battling for me and trying to clear the net front,” he said.

This season was Huelskoetter’s first playing for a high school, having played for Team Alaska for his freshman and sophomore years.

“This is one of my favorite teams that I’ve ever played on,” he said. “With high school hockey, you always have a crowd, you feel like your team is more together and you have school with them and everybody is a little more like a team.”

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He is not sure if he’ll be playing his senior year with South just yet as he would welcome the chance to play for the Anchorage Wolverines, if it presents itself.

“We’ve relied on him heavily and you see why,” Ramsey said. “We need him like that in big games and that’s what he does for us.”

Joining elite company

The last Division I team go go undefeated was Chugiak during a dominant run to the 2023 state championship. To assume the mantle of the most recent is a “huge” accomplishment for the program, Ramsey said.

“You get on with the season, five, ten, 15 games in and you’re like ‘Are we really doing this?’ and they freakin did it,” Ramsey said. “There was a lot of pressure all season for our boys and pressure all game, zero-zero and coming out on top like that with the way it ended. They deserve it and I’m glad we could get it done.”

Despite finishing the regular season without a loss, the Wolverines took a one game at a time mentality heading into the playoffs, being sure to not overlook or underestimate any opponent.

“It’s really hard to win these,” Ramsey said “You can’t lose so there’s no loser’s bracket to get back into the winner’s bracket. You have to prepare like it’s your last and that’s what these boys did every game.”

The last time South made the state finals was just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020 and it resulted in the Wolverines falling to fellow perennial contender West Anchorage.

Prior to this season, West had established itself as the dominant power on the prep hockey scene, having won the past two Division I state titles. With what South showed this year and the fact that they are only graduating a handful of seniors from the team, they don’t plan on going anywhere anytime soon.

“We used to be on top all the time so hopefully this is something we can keep going here,” Ramsey said. “They experienced this, they know what it takes to get here so hopefully they can go into the (next) season with that mindset and keep working for it all the way.”