The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“I know that we’re a legitimate team in the league”
The Crested Butte Wolfpack hockey team had a prolific opening to the 2012-2013 season, handing their down-valley rival, the Gunnison Blades, a 2-1 loss in a season-opening scrimmage on Wednesday, November 14.
The Blades have dominated the rivalry for most of the past couple of years. The last time the Wolfpack won was two years ago up in Crested Butte, but that was one out of more than 10 meetings in the past several years.
Given the lack of ice time the Wolfpack have had to prepare for the season, coach John Mortell had a fairly conservative plan heading into the game.
“I just wanted to see how my guys were going to come out and play as a team,” says Mortell. “They came out and played awesome.”
After a scoreless first period, Sam Reaman put the Wolfpack on the board first, scoring off a rebound during a mad scramble in front of the Blades’ net.
A couple minutes later in the second period, Isaac Evans struck and the Wolfpack took a 2-0 lead into the third period.
Gunnison scored in the third to close the gap but the Wolfpack held on to win 2-1.
“I had no weak links—every kid was firing, playing together and had a desire to win that game,” says Mortell. “The smiles on their faces in the locker room were huge.”
The Wolfpack then headed into the lion’s den that weekend with three games in two days against Front Range teams from the league.
With the team high off the big win over Gunnison, Mortell kept them grounded with the challenge ahead.
“We just wanted them to focus on being competitive, running their systems and don’t let anyone walk all over us,” says Mortell.
The Wolfpack did just what the coaches asked in the first game against the Foothills.
The two teams played scoreless hockey through the first period with the Wolfpack dominating most of the play. But Foothills had a secret weapon in net, turning away everything that was shot at him.
Foothills took a 1-0 lead six minutes into the second period and scored three more in the third, including an empty-netter to win 4-0.
Despite the outcome, Mortell liked what he saw as the Wolfpack outshot Foothills and played a far more physical game.
“We were in that game the whole time,” says Mortell. “They have a goalie who is a player—he stood on his head. Our offense was playing better at that point in the season than I’ve seen them play in a long time.”
The Wolfpack faced the Arapahoe Warriors later that day, a team they knew plenty about from last year.
Arapahoe knocked the Wolfpack out of the Frozen Four last year 2-1 and went on to win the state title.
“We knew that team and knew that we could beat them,” says Mortell.
In the end, fresh legs made the difference as the Wolfpack had just 10 skaters, while the Warriors had a full bench of 18 players to rotate through.
Arapahoe built a 2-0 lead before the Wolfpack found the net when Cristo Church tipped the puck in off a shot from Emerson Wohlers to close the lead.
Mortell then pulled goalie Montana Wiggins in the final minutes to put on an extra skater but Arapahoe slipped in an empty net goal for the 3-1 win.
The Wolfpack suffered a big loss early in the third game on Sunday, November 18 against Littleton. Already down to 10 players, Crested Butte lost senior Troy Pike to a shoulder injury, leaving a big hole on the ice.
“Without him our guys were chasing and just trying to hang in there,” says Mortell.
The Wolfpack ended up losing the last game 5-0 but despite dropping all three games, Mortell sees a bright future for the Wolfpack.
“I think that everything that happened this weekend was extremely positive,” says Mortell. “I know that we’re a legitimate team in the league.”
The Wolfpack head back down to Gunnison to face the Blades in a league-sanctioned game on Thursday, November 29—the puck drops at 6:45 p.m.
