Panthers skating past Gunnison competition

Record stands at 10-2
 
The West Elk (Crested Butte) U14 Panthers girls’ hockey team hosted the Gunnison Blades U14 hockey team before a good crowd at Big Mine Ice Rink last Friday night.
The Panther’s Hailey Pike scored early at 4:26 in the first period with a nifty fore-check in neutral ice and scored top shelf on Blade goalie Maddie Smith.
With less than a minute to play in the opening period Panther forward Kendl Santelli stole an errant Blade pass and fed Pike for a 2-0 Crested Butte lead.
Izzie Dethloff knocked in a loose rebound in the second period to stretch the Panther lead to 3-0. The Blades kept up the pressure on the Panthers, causing the Crested Butte squad to ward off three penalty kills. Monika Olesen notched her fifth shutout of the season with a Panther 3-0 victory.
The home and home series switched to Gunnison for a Saturday morning game at Jorgensen Ice Arena. The Panthers skated past the hometown Blades squad for an early 5-0 lead with goals coming from Ali McGuire (two goals), Elizabeth Stepanek , Kaitlyn Seifert and Pike. Seifert, Leila Nichols, Maddie Lambert and Kendl Santelli dished out assists.
The Blades then capitalized on a Crested Butte turnover with Sydney Archuletta making a perfect pass to the hard-skating Marissa Danos, who banged it past Olesen stopping the Panthers goaltender’s shutout streak at five. Nichols finished the scoring for Crested Butte and the Panthers skated to a 6-1 victory.
The next game up for the Panthers was Summit from Breckenridge. After a scoreless first period the Panthers woke up for five unanswered goals. McGuire notched two strikes along with Pike, Nichols and Seifert to make it Panthers 5, Summit 0. Olesen recorded her sixth shutout in net.
The final game of the weekend series was on Sunday morning and was a hard-fought contest. With Olesen on her game and the Panther defense (Lambert, Ryan Carroll, Miki Olesen and Bradley Santelli) being stingy, Crested Butte stopped Summit’s constant pressure and the Panthers escaped with a 2-1 victory.
The win moved the Crested Butte U14 squad to 10-2 in MSGHL play with two league games remaining against the New Mexico Renegades on February 19-20 in Gunnison.
This weekend the West Elk U16 team will host Colorado Select in Gunnison, depending on the rink status at Jorgensen. These games will be the U16’s final four games in league play before the MSGHL State Playoffs begin in Denver February 25-27 at the Edge Ice Arena.
Come down to Gunnison and check out this hard skating team featuring a mix of Crested Butte and Gunnison girls who play a fast tempo of hockey.