The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Rattle off four wins
The Crested Butte Wolfpack hit the road this past weekend and pummeled league opponents Craig and Aspen, improving their record to 6-5.
Prior to the trip they stopped off in Aspen to cheer on their friend Aaron Blunck in the finals of the X Games skier SuperPipe, for some key team bonding.
Furthermore, Troy Pike was able to lace up the skates for the first time in several weeks.
“Having Troy back was a great thing for our team,” says Wolfpack head coach John Mortell.
The Wolfpack outscored the two teams 28-7 over the two-day stretch, with a majority of the damage coming from Sam Reaman and Dylan Curtiss. Pike lit the lamp as well several times, Ian Dethloff joined his line mates Reaman and Curtiss to set up and finish numerous times, and Wolfpack rookies Derek Shomler and Axel Deer netted one each over the weekend.
The Wolfpack opened their road trip with two games in Craig against the Bulldogs on Saturday, January 26. Craig is struggling in the cellar of the league, still searching for their first win and Mortell used the opportunity to run three lines and get everyone on the ice.
Although, while Craig is winless, they did open strong, causing Mortell some concern.
“Craig was playing physical and they have a great goalie,” says Mortell. “At first we were getting a little nervous. But the Reaman, Dethloff and Curtiss line went to work and dissected that team.”
The Wolfpack skated to an 8-1 win in the first game and carried the crushing though the second game for an 8-3 win.
The team then headed into new territory to face cross-mountain rivals Aspen. One thing was for sure: they were riding a wave of momentum.
“We were feeling solid about the way we were playing,” says Mortell.
Mortell took a chance heading into Aspen, mixing up his line. The move paid off as they handed Aspen back-to-back sound defeats.
“I decided to skate two lines, move Dethloff to the second line to lead that and Danny Boy [D’Aquila] up to the first line,” explains Mortell. “It worked out really well.”
Aspen came out physical, paying the price with a number of penalties and the Wolfpack exploited the man-up situation with the power play line of Dethloff, Curtiss and Reaman scoring three power play goals to take the first game 4-1.
“Their creativity was just perfect,” says Mortell.
The Wolfpack then took it up a notch to decimate Aspen 8-2 in the second game.
“The whole team was on,” says Mortell.
The Wolfpack heads to Telluride this weekend for two more league games and Mortell is expecting another physical showdown.
“They’re going to be coming out looking for us,” says Mortell. “If we play like we did in Aspen, we can play with anyone.”
