The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
What the Brick?
What’s up with the Brick Oven hockey team? I mean where do those guys get off being so nice? I can’t stand nice people.
You know why?
Because they’re so nice!
I wasn’t even going to write about them this year. Ban them from the Barrel. Even if they did repeat as town league champions.
Because not only are they nice, but they also win!
And it’s not just the hockey team. It’s the entire Brick Oven establishment. Anytime a local non-profit wants to raise some money—anytime someone needs help with some sort of fundraising at all—guess who’s willing to help?
The Brick Oven!
Who does this? Who, in this day and age, can remain so nice?
The nerve of those people. Living in a nice place, with great skiing, great biking, a great community (even with James Brennan) and being so nice.
SONOFA!
And Monday night, they went and done it again. The Brick Oven was nice and they won, edging out a 2-1 win over High Country Capital Management (HCCM).
All high and mighty with their niceness. Which, by the way, is one of my least favorite songs ever… EVER! I’d rather hear some Tears for Fears than Niceness!
Seriously? Na Na Na Na Na Niceness.
How about Fa Fa Fa Fa Fa…. Never mind.
The Brick set the pace early in the game, led by none other than Matt Gutter who came out smokin’ in his first shift on the ice firing shots and setting up teammates in the slot.
All to no avail though, as HCCM goalie Shawn Harrington proved stout in net.
Cody Taube did what he could to bring HCCM’s game up to speed with a flurry of skating and stick work but that effort, also, was to no avail.
(What’s that even mean, “to no avail”?)
In fact, while both teams were playing their hearts out, it wasn’t amounting to much.
But enough was enough and Deuce Wynes decided to start setting up his Brick Oven teammates as much as possible.
He first tried with Todd Carroll but that didn’t quite work out. So, a couple minutes later he tried it with Dan Loftus and that turned out perfectly. As Wynes drew the attention of both the HCCM defense and goaltender, he found Loftus wide open in the slot with a pass and Loftus found the back of the wide open net with the shot for a 1-0 Brick Oven lead.
By the way, Deuce never shoots so don’t even bother with him. Not because he can’t, just doesn’t want to (again with the nice thing). Besides, even if you did try, you probably couldn’t stop him so might as well collapse and clog the slot and see how long he’ll actually go without finally shooting the puck himself.
The second period was virtually uneventful. HCCM did a great job of killing off a penalty and did manage to find some chances on net with the work of Jay Graceffa and James Brennan and closed the period with a powerplay.
Side note: Kent Preston was called for taking a slapshot giving HCCM the powerplay He even tried to keep his stick low when he shot, still got called for it and, guess what, didn’t even complain on his way to the penalty box.
HCCM picked it up a step in the third period and fired off several quality looks at the net but Brad Bodell made the necessary stops to hold the Brick’s slim one-goal lead.
The Brick Oven added an insurance goal with just under two minutes left in regulation as Wynes fed Gutter up the boards and Gutter stuffed the puck top shelf.
HCCM called timeout to, in theory, regroup for one last surge. Instead, they spent a majority of the break talking about beer and then returned to the ice. Turned out, the beer talk was just what they needed as they came out firing and scored with 12 seconds left as Graceffa punched a loose puck past Bodell during a flurry of swinging sticks in the slot.
But it proved too little, too late, as the Brick skated away with the 2-1 win.
They won, they were nice.
SONOFA!
