Lady Blades take down top team in their league

Cap to great weekend of girls hockey

The Gunnison Blades U-19 girls team shook up the Mountain States Girls Hockey League (MSGHL) this past weekend, handing Summit its first loss of the season. The win capped a four-game home stand for the Blades during which the Blades finished with three wins and a tie. Now they’re in third place in the league with a record of 6-1-3.
The Blades are a mix of talent from both Gunnison and Crested Butte and have been a force in the MSGHL for the past several years, winning the league title in 2013. They were positioned for a repeat title in 2014 but came up short in the post-season. While they lost four players to graduation, the team is still flush with talent for the 2015 season.
“It’s pretty much the same team as last year, pretty good senior class—really good junior class,” says coach Tony Lambert.
The Blades opened the season with a 3-1 loss to Steamboat back in December but have yet to give up another loss since then.
“We definitely gave one away that first game and started out slow for sure, but we’re getting better every game,” says Lambert.
Their biggest challenge so far came this past weekend with four games scheduled in Gunnison, two against Telluride and two against Summit. While Telluride is sitting at the bottom of the league standings, Summit is at the opposite end of the spectrum, coming into Gunnison undefeated. And, while Lambert had some insight into the Summit squad, it took a game for the Blades to dial in their game plan against the league frontrunners.
“I really had no idea, I knew they had one spectacular line,” explains Lambert. “We just had to figure them out.”
The Blades opened the weekend on Saturday, January 10 against Summit and fell behind in the first period 1-0. Summit built on their lead midway through the second period but the Blades scored in the final to minutes to pull back within one heading into the third period. The Blades then tied it up seven minutes into the third period and the two teams finished with a 2-2 draw.
The Blades closed Saturday skating to a blow-out over Telluride. Goals from Ashley Crittendon and Leila Nichols put the Blades up 2-0 in the first, Izzie Dethloff and Elizabeth Stepanek added two more in the second, and then the Blades blew the game wide open in the third period as Alexis Duke scored twice and Nichols scored once more for the 7-1 win.
The Blades returned to the ice Sunday afternoon for another easy win over Telluride, though things started off slowly for the Blades. While Telluride had only five skaters for the first seven minutes of the game, the Blades managed just one goal in the first period as Nichols netted a solo effort.
But as the game wore on, the Blades started to gain steam, scoring two more in the second period as Lindsay Johnson and Madison Lambert found the back of the net. The Blades opened it up in the third period once again with four different Blades players scoring for the 7-0 win.
The game proved a great build-up for the Blades’ rematch with Summit later that day. With some insight into Summit’s play, Lambert put a plan in place.
“We played the lines game,” says Lambert. “I told my two line they needed to excel, and they did.”
The Blades found themselves down in the first period once again but tied it up early in the second period as Nichols scored off an assist from Kendl Santelli. Summit responded 40 seconds later to retake the lead but Crittendon slipped through to score midway through the second and tie the game 2-2.
Summit closed the period with a third goal for a 3-2 lead heading into the third period but that was all they had as Crittendon scored her second goal of the game off an assist from Kaitlyn Seifert to tie the game 3-3 and Hailey Pike broke free on a pass from Emma Burt with two minutes left to score and ice the 4-3 Blades win.
“It was awesome,” says Lambert. “I’m definitely happy with the way they’re playing. They’re working harder and starting to gel as a team, which has been the toughest thing.”
A handful of the Blades players will head to San Jose, Calif. for an annual hockey tournament trip and then return to action in Gunnison the following weekend when they host Colorado Springs on Saturday, January 24 with games at 2 and 5 p.m.