Wolfpack hockey opens season in New Mexico against Renegades

Catch the Pack in Gunnison this weekend

With just limited ice time so far, the Crested Butte Wolfpack midget (high school) hockey team traveled to New Mexico last weekend for a three-game showdown with the New Mexico Renegades.
The Wolfpack is in a transitional state this season with head coach John Mortell and assistant Sean Kelly taking over. Fortunately, both Kelly and Mortell worked with several of the Wolfpack players when they were Bantams and Pee Wees so the transition should be relatively seamless.
Furthermore, the Wolfpack has a slew of upperclassmen returning, including defensemen Ian Kelly, Jake Grogg and Ben Frame and goalkeeper Nicholas Mikeska, as well as the team’s leading scorer Sam Evans and line mate Ben Reaman.
Adding to the mix is a solid crew of first-year midgets who all skated under Mortell last year.
The Wolfpack started on the ice in the second week of October with a week of Hocktober Camp in Gunnison. Since then, they’ve had two more sessions on the ice in Gunnison and the team has already made vast improvements from last season.
“I’m really pleased with what I’ve been seeing,” says Mortell. “They instantly gelled.”
They got their first true test of the season against the Renegades, a U-16 select team pulling the top players from nine high school programs in the city of Albuquerque to form the traveling squad. In addition, they had two months of ice time heading into the games against Crested Butte.
Nevertheless, the Wolfpack held their own against the plucky young select team, finishing the weekend with a 1-1-1 record.
The Wolfpack opened the series fueled by adrenaline in their first game of the season and jumped out to a 2-0 lead on goals by Sam Evans and Ben Frame.
They carried the lead into the third period but the Renegades came back in the third to tie the game 2-2, but with less than three minutes left in the game Dakota Wiggins found Ben Reaman with a pass and Reaman finished to ice the 3-2 win.
“They were fired-up to play hockey,” says coach John Mortell. “They were just attacking constantly.”
The two teams met again later that day and the Renegades exacted revenge, taking advantage of numerous Wolfpack penalties to hand the Wolfpack a 4-1 loss.
Penalty woes continued to plague the Wolfpack in the third game of the series on Sunday, forcing Mortell and Kelly to make numerous mid-game line adjustments.
“We had quite a few penalties, which makes you change the line-ups,” says Mortell. “The game plan stayed the same—I just switched the kids around.”
The Wolfpack rallied and the two teams played even hockey all three periods, trading off goals in the first period.
Dylan Curtiss opened the scoring taking an assist from Grogg but the Renegades tied it up.
Curtiss and Evans each netted a goal in the second period to build a 3-1 lead but the Renegades capitalized on 5 v 3 and 5 v 4 situations in the third period to tie the game 3-3.
Still down a man in the closing the minutes, the Wolfpack clamped down on defense to hold on for the tie.
“The kids were just hustling and staying after it,” says Mortell. “We were just fighting for the tie.”
The Wolfpack heads to Gunnison this weekend to play Glenwood Springs on Saturday, November 13 at 2 p.m. and Sunday, November 14 at 8 a.m.
They will continue with a series of non-league games until the first week of January when they jump into league play.