The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Seek to get on track this weekend in Gunnison
The Crested Butte Wolfpack opened their two-game home stand against the Grand Valley Mavericks playing some of their best hockey to date. Unfortunately, they struggled to maintain that pace after the first period of the first game, eventually dropping both games to the Mavericks on Saturday night at Big Mine Ice Arena.
The Wolfpack came out in the first period fired up, laying out quality hits and moving the puck through zones with tight passing that left Grand Valley on their heels most of the period.
Jake Sunter wreaked havoc, playing on the forward line with big hustle and solid stick work.
The effort paid off with three minutes left in the period when Collin Dill tipped a shot by Troy Pike past the Grand Valley goalie for a 1-0 Wolfpack lead.
But the second and third period were a totally different story.
Either Grand Valley woke up or Crested Butte fell asleep, or both, as Grand Valley charged their way through the next two periods enroute to a 4-2 win.
After taking the brunt of the hits in the first period, Grand Valley started doling them out. Furthermore, they were out-skating the Wolfpack, outpacing the Wolfpack and ultimately skating right down the middle of the ice at the Wolfpack net with only Crested Butte goalie Nicholas Mikeska between them and the back of the net.
Grand Valley scored three goals alone in the second period to go up 3-1 and added a fourth before Sam Evans scored in the final minute on an assist from Ben Reaman for the lone bright spot in the final two periods of play.
The Wolfpack outshot Grand Valley 38 to 23 in the first game but Grand Valley’s goalie was spot-on with several big saves.
The loss of defenseman Ben Frame in the first game continued to plague the Wolfpack in their second game against the Mavericks, as did Grand Valley’s apparent game plan to shut down Crested Butte’s leading scorer Evans.
Every time Evans stepped on the ice, Grand Valley adjusted to shut him down.
Crested Butte appeared determined to even the score with Grand Valley with another solid opening period in game two, but the Mavericks scored midway through the first period to take a 1-0 lead.
Max Molitor led a Wolfpack surge late in the first period but the Grand Valley goalie turned away numerous Wolfpack shots to hold the Grand Valley 1-0 lead.
Evans broke free in the early stages of the second period to tie the game scoring off an assist from Reaman but Grand Valley responded with two goals to build a 3-1 lead.
The Mavericks scored once more early in the third period and skated through the rest of the period in control of the game to finish off the Wolfpack 4-1.
The Wolfpack will head down to Gunnison on Thursday, February 4 to face the Blades at 8 p.m. They will return to Gunnison on Saturday, February 6 to play the Blades “B” team at 2:30 p.m. and then Durango at 5:30 p.m.
