The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Teams positioning for playoff runs
How is it that last year’s town league hockey champions, the Eldo, are sitting near the bottom of the standings this year? Well, for one thing, they lost star defenseman Bob Piccaro to a season-ending knee injury. Then, they missed a scorekeeping shift, resulting in a penalty turning one of their wins into a loss. That left the Eldo knocking on the cellar door with a record of 1-4-1.
Thursday night was a shot at turning things around. When they took to the ice at Big Mine Ice Arena to face the Talk of the Town, it was the unofficial Battle of the Barmuda Triangle.
The return to the Eldo of yesteryear was sparked Thursday night by the play of Matt Cahir. Cahir was instrumental in three of the Eldo’s goals that night, starting three minutes into the first period.
Cahir carried the puck up the boards past one Talk player, and drawing a second before dishing the puck to Pete Curvin in the high slot. Curvin, settled, shot and scored, giving the Eldo an early 1-0 lead.
Goaltenders Guy Ciulla and Reed Schaub traded off kick saves through the meat of the first period before the Eldo struck again with three minutes left in the period. Player/captain Paul O’Connor carried the puck up ice looking to set up one of his teammates in front but with no one available, he skated across the face of the net to stuff it past Schaub for a 2-0 Eldo advantage heading into the second period.
The Talk responded four minutes into the second period when Betty Sue Gurk found Willy Coburn open mid-ice. Coburn took the puck into the Eldo zone and picked the far post clean with a wrist shot.
Cahir struck again, this time on the scoring end, following on a shot by O’Connor to punch the loose puck through for a 3-1 Eldo lead.
But the Talk came right back 40 seconds later when Kevin Bramwell charged in off the point to blast a shot off the pipe and in, holding the Eldo to a tenuous one-goal lead.
The Talk had a shot at tying it up with a power play opportunity only to have it backfire when Adam Jack Ofsterdahl broke free for a one-on-one short-handed attack. Schaub denied Ofsterdahl but Megan Paden was following the play and scored on the rebound for a 4-2 Eldo lead.
O’Connor struck once again to build a comfortable three-goal Eldo advantage early in the third period. Coburn made the most of the mayhem in front of the Eldo net to score his second goal of the game but a series of Ciulla saves held off further damage from the Talk as time ticked away.
John Hickey put the finishing touches on the win, scoring with six minutes left to seal the 6-3 Eldo victory.
The town league regular season comes to a close this week with the playoffs slated to start on Friday, February 24 at 7 p.m.
