The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Host Pueblo in Gunnison this weekend
by Than Acuff
The Crested Butte Titans hockey team remains undefeated in league play squeaking out a 5-4 win over the Rampart Rams on Friday, January 5.
The Titans headed into the break with four wins but the holiday season can stall any team’s momentum, as players are busy with family obligations.
While that was not quite the case for the Titans hockey team, a week of non-mandatory practices the first week of break led to erratic workouts the second week as they prepared for their upcoming game against Rampart.
“Coming back and getting into practices leading up to the game you could tell we’d been away from it for a while,” says coach Jake Johnstone. “It was too long of a break and tough to get back into it.”
The Titans hit the road Friday for their showdown with Rampart, a team that, at least on paper, would present more of a challenge for the Titans than their previous two opponents.
In the end, Rampart proved to be just that, more than the Titans had seen yet this year, and Crested Butte found itself in a battle for all three periods.
“They had some good players on their team and they opened the scoring quick,” says Johnstone.
In fact, Rampart scored in the opening minute of the game to kick off what would be a frantic first period, with continued chaos the next two periods.
After giving up the early goal, the Titans rattled off three goals in a row as Luke Collins and Hunter Wright scored and then the Titans converted on a power play with Sam Stepanek finding the back of the net.
Rampart responded on their ensuing power play, though, to close the scoring in the first period, with the Titans holding on to a slim 3-2 lead.
Rampart then tied up the game two minutes into the second period but Walker Carroll and Kaden Hardesty connected to retake the lead two minutes later and the Titans remained on top for the rest of the second and late into the third period.
“I told the guys, we got the lead, be smart,” says Johnstone.
But Rampart capitalized on a miscue in the 14th minute of the third period to tie the game 4-4, potentially sparking a late-game surge. Fortunately, the Titans’ resolve remained solid and Michael Hensley provided the game-winning strike off an assist from Carroll in the final minute of regulation. Goalie Clayton Freed finished the game stopping 32 of 36 shots.
“Luckily we bounced back,” says Johnstone. “I tell them that if you go hard on net, things are going to happen. The entire game is kind of hard to describe. I want them to play more puck possession style and I think the entire game we were forcing things that just weren’t there.”
The Titans remain at home this weekend to host Pueblo in Gunnison. Pueblo is currently undefeated as well, with just six goals against them thus far this season. While Johnstone is happier with what he is seeing during workouts this week, he is still waiting for players to start asserting themselves in roles on the ice.
“We lost a lot of senior leadership last year and a bulk of the scoring,” explains Johnstone. “So I’m trying to find who is going to take that role up front because the schedule is only going to get tougher.”
The first game is set for Friday, January 12 at 6 p.m. with the teams meeting again on Saturday, January 13 at noon.
