The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Save a Horse: Ride a Cowboy
by Than Acuff
There was something I was going to spend the first three paragraphs talking about but I can’t quite remember what it was. I’m sure it’ll come to me…
Meanwhile, Altitude Painting and the Eldo squared off Thursday night at Big Mine Ice Arena in some hot town league action and what transpired was… Oh, wait, now I remember. It was the words hot, town, action that reminded me.
This is a Sports Barrel shout out to the Move the Butte folks.
This weekend, Move the Butte reminded me that as locals slip into starting gates to charge down the steeps and boost big air, or bury themselves on mountain bikes trying to ride for 100 miles, or ride for 24 hours straight, or kayak the Black Canyon 50 times, or ski from Crested Butte to Aspen in the middle of the night or what have you—there’s also 90-plus dancers, choreographers and stage personnel here who give it their all on the stage up-close and personal in front of their peers.
It takes a pair to hit a 30-foot cliff but I would argue it takes an equally large pair to get up and dance on stage. And maybe a little larger pair to dress up like a cowboy and do a male strip review with a kid’s rocking horse as a prop to a song titled “Save a Horse: Ride a Cowboy.”
Moving the Butte takes as much athletic ability, stamina and downright nerve as any of the athletic accomplishments I cover (except for maybe our local Olympians), and for that I applaud.
Now, speaking of athletic ability, stamina and nerve (sorta): Back to hockey.
The five fans in attendance got their money’s worth (free) as Altitude Painting and the Eldo combined for a total of 17 goals before a winner emerged.
Altitude goalie/captain Shawn Harrington was coming off a banner game from earlier in the week, shutting down some of the top scorers in the league, but was picked for an early goal as Eldo skater William Muller picked the upper corner 30 seconds into the game for a 1-0 lead. Forty-five seconds later Altitude defenseman Emerson Wohlers decided to skate coast-to-coast, hitting both sides in the process to tie it up.
Altitude jumped on top 2-1, thanks to a strike from Carlee Drobnik but the Eldo fired right back two minutes later as Harrington stopped the initial blast from Muller, but Alex Albers slipped in to corral the rebound and poke it past Harrington, tying the game back up 2-2.
Then Altitude got a little attitude. It’s been a tough season for them but netting two early goals provided a little spring in their skate as they rattled off the next three goals. Nathan Lacy started it off picking the low corner with one shot and then skating to goal on a loose puck and punching it past Eldo net-minder Lucas Mullen. A minute later Alex Banas took his efforts from defense to offense to score and Altitude was out front 5-2.
The Eldo had the final say in the first period, though—actually Montana Wiggins did. Eldo defenseman Anthony Poponi fired a shot from the blue line and Wiggins put the perfect tip on it to redirect the puck past Harrington. The only downside: Wiggins is on Harrington’s team, so their own goal had the Eldo back within two.
The same excitement continued through the second period and as word spread of the scoring frenzy via the social media, the crowd grew to six fervent and freezing fans.
Banas scored two more goals for Altitude, David Bright poked the puck in for the Eldo and Muller scored his second of the game as Altitude Painting took a 7-5 lead into the third period.
Things then ramped up even more in the final 11 minutes, starting with a succession of lasers fired by Paul Tilger from the blue line. Harrington made the required stops to deny Tilger and Altitude counterattacked, catching the Eldo pinched in as Drobnik skated behind the net to slip in a wraparound goal.
Poponi responded for the Eldo with another blast from the point, followed that with some big effort on defense, and then followed that with some much-needed bench time.
Skye Houseman and Muller connected to pull the Eldo to within one midway through the third and then Albers tied the game up 8-8 with three minutes left to play.
While the Eldo had taken the momentum firmly in hand, Altitude was too close to the win to let it slip away. Wiggins atoned for his own goal mishap earlier in the game, tipping the puck into the correct net this time in the final five seconds of the game for the 9-8 Altitude win.
