The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Face Hyland Hills in opening round of state playoffs
The Crested Butte Wolfpack lost their final regular season league game on Sunday, March 3, dropping a spot in the final seedings for the playoffs March 8-10.
The game came as a surprise to the Wolfpack players, who thought they were done with regular season play two weeks ago when they beat Regis 5-1, and then Regis forfeited the second game to try to beat the storm headed for Denver.
League officials intervened in the fallout and decided Regis should return to Crested Butte to play the second game.
Following a week of practices to prepare for the post-season, the Wolfpack found out they had to play Regis again—and the team just could not wrap their collective heads around the fact that they had another game to play.
“We definitely went into the game with a different feeling,” says captain Dylan Curtiss. “We had to refocus as a team, and we didn’t. We didn’t show up and we didn’t play the game we needed to play.”
Regis seized on the lethargic play of the Wolfpack to score two goals in two minutes midway through the first period.
Crested Butte got a boost late in the second period when Sam Reaman took the puck to the corner and centered it. The puck glanced off Danny D’Aquila and a couple of Regis defenseman and squirted through to Curtiss, waiting on the far post to stuff it in.
“That lit us up a little bit,” says Curtiss. “We had a better attitude going into the third period.”
But before the Wolfpack could seize on the momentum built at the end of the second period, Regis scored early in the third to take a 3-1 lead.
The goal drained what little energy the Wolfpack had and Regis added an insurance goal three minutes later to pull ahead 4-1.
“We fell back into a slump after Regis scored that third goal,” admits Curtiss.
With four minutes left in regulation, captain Troy Pike looked to inspire one last surge from his teammates with a tremendous solo effort. Pike gathered the puck behind his own goal and proceeded to skate the length of the ice through the entire Regis team and score. But it proved too little too late as Regis held on for the 4-2 win.
“Unfortunately we couldn’t poke more in after that,” says Curtiss. “We thought it would pick us back up but we were still down by two at that point.”
The loss dropped the Wolfpack from the fifth seed to the sixth seed heading into the post-season tournament.
“The whole team knows that was a bad game but we need to put that behind us,” says Curtiss.
As a result, they will face Hyland Hills in the opening game of the single-elimination tournament on Friday, March 8. Hyland Hills brings a physical and fast-paced style of play to the ice and handed the Wolfpack a 2-0 loss during the regular season.
“They’re definitely a really good team,” says Curtiss. “But we know we’re one of the best teams in the league. We’re going to have to come out hard, hit them first and win 50/50 battles.”
If the Wolfpack win, they move onto the semifinals on Saturday, March 9. A win on Saturday will put them in the finals for a shot at the Midget Major A state title.
