Crested Butte Masters finish season with tourney win

Raise nearly $2,000 for Cash Lamar

Is Crested Butte a ski town with a hockey problem or a hockey town with a ski problem? The line has definitely been blurred this year.
Nevertheless, I think the local hockey season is officially over in the Gunnison Valley and the Crested Butte Masters team shut the door, winning the Brent Carlson Memorial Hockey Tournament in Gunnison March 23-25.
While hockey in its purest form is a competitive sport, the Brent Carlson tournament is a fundraiser as well and the masters-age skaters, 35 and older, maintain a modicum of civility on the ice.
The tournament was conceived 10 years ago when, one week after a local Gunnison Valley team won a masters tournament in Aspen, team member and masters tournament organizer Brent Carlson died as a result of a hunting accident. Carlson left behind a wife, a child and a second child on the way.
As a result, the Brent Carlson Memorial Hockey Tournament was started as a fundraiser for the family. Over the years it has grown and raises money to go toward Brent’s children and their college fund, as well as several local charities. This year, the players decided to give a portion of the proceeds, almost $2,000, to help cover medical costs for Cash Lamar and his family.
Eight masters teams from throughout Colorado came to Gunnison for a shot at the Brent Carlson title and the coveted trophy, a can of beans (see the can in the hands of goalie Mike Potts in photo).
The Crested Butte Masters team was a mix of the old guard and the soon-to-become old guard. Jack Gibbons, Tim Seifert and Dan Law represented the old guard on the team, as did Gibbons’ brother Denny who flew in from Minnesota for the tourney. Former Pigs player Jim Stanley was also called to the ice for the weekend to cover some shifts through the middle of the tournament.
The new old guard consisted of Paul O’Connor, Sean Norton, Sean Kelly, John Mortell, Lurch, Tom Collins, John Baron and goalie Mike Potts.
The team got its biggest test of the weekend in their opening game Friday night against a squad out of Woodland Park.
“That was our hardest game,” says Gibbons.
The team gelled immediately to beat the Woodland Park squad 5-4 but lost Law in the process to injury.
“He took on the coaching role,” says Gibbons. “The Law was the Man.”
The team lost Collins as well to prior commitments for their next three games but Stanley was there in a pinch to fill the skates of Collins.
The Crested Butte Masters didn’t miss a beat over the course of the weekend, winning their next three games to finish open pool play with a perfect record of 4-0 and advancing to the finals to face the Arkansas Valley Lumberjacks.
Collins returned to the line-up for the championship game and led the team with a hat trick. Seifert lit the lamp twice and Denny, while hampered in part by the altitude, let his passing do the talking, moving the puck with tape-to-tape precision as the Crested Butte Masters skated to a 7-2 win to take “the whole can of beans.”