The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Record stands at 12-2
The Blades U19 girls’ hockey team continues to shred its way through the Mountain States Girls Hockey League (MSGHL), handing Summit County back-to-back losses this past weekend.
While Summit County’s record showed a team wallowing near the bottom of the standings, they proved troublesome for the Blades in the opening game on Saturday, January 12.
“Summit County definitely came out playing,” says coach Tony Lambert. “They’ve got some good skaters.”
The teams played two periods of scoreless hockey before Summit County broke the stalemate four minutes into the third period.
The Blades tied the game four minutes later when Ashley Crittendon scored off an assist from Jennifer Ehmsen. Another four minutes went by before Madison Lambert broke the tie, netting an unassisted goal with two minutes left in the game and the Blades held on for the 2-1 win.
“We weren’t on our game,” says Lambert. “Everything was sort of a step off, head down and holding the puck too long.”
The Blades opened the second game Sunday morning better prepared mentally for the task at hand. Ali McGuire put the Blades on the scoreboard first but Summit tied it up three minutes later. The Blades closed the first period on goals from Hailey Pike and McGuire and McGuire added another goal early in the second period to build a 4-1 lead.
Summit County came roaring back, firing off three goals in a row to cut the Blades’ lead to one by the close of the second period.
“Summit woke up and we had a couple of mental breakdowns,” says Lambert.
Following some choice words from Lambert between periods, the Blades rebuilt their three-goal lead in the third period. Crittendon scored off an assist from Marisa Danos, Ehmsen netted her second goal of the weekend and Pike scored her second goal of the game to put the Blades up 7-3 before Summit County could respond with one last strike. Pike put the finishing touch on the win, completing her hat trick in the final minute of play for the 8-4 Blades win.
“Ali Sunter had a great second half of the game and Hailey is on fire,” says Lambert. “The team started focusing on what they needed to do. I wish they’d bring it all the time.”
The two wins bring the Blades’ record to 12-2 and the team is sitting in second place behind Aspen in the standings, but Lambert is still concerned about what lies ahead for his team.
“We’re definitely the team to beat and they’re taking things a little bit lightly,” says Lambert. “I won’t be happy until there’s a banner in the air.”
A couple of Blades players are headed to a big tournament in San Jose, California this weekend and the team returns to action January 26-27 when they face Telluride.
