The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Race pace on skates
[ by Than Acuff ]
I had an interesting encounter at the late game in town league hockey action Monday evening. At first I thought a player may have hit their head during warm up and needed attention. I later came to realize that the player was actually just drunk and I thought, you’ll get that. I mean it is town league hockey and there’s going to be a player, or two or three, who has some free time between the end of work at 5 p.m. and the start of the late game at 8:15 p.m. and idle hands are the devil’s workshop. Or, in laymen’s terms, “let’s go get a beer before the game.”
No judgment here. I completely understand. You got three hours to kill, it’s Monday, work sucked and we’ve received four inches of snow in the past 23 days, but who’s counting.
Thank God there’s town league hockey to keep everyone, or almost everyone, on task.
Monday night was a showcase of title contenders as the Last Steep edged out a 7-6 win over Clark’s Market in the early game and then Lacy’s rolled to a 5-2 win over REG in the late game.
It was evident from the opening face off that Lacy’s had a significant speed advantage and while REG had Dylan Curtiss back in action, they were missing a couple other key players. But, as was mentioned in their first game of the season, REG’s overall organization on the ice makes up for any shortcomings in personnel and they were at it again against Lacy’s. While Lacy’s was flying up and down the ice, REG’s positional play held them in check and their goalie Nicholas Mikeska made the required saves to keep things tight.
Not that REG was without speed entirely as Curtiss and Axel Deer did have the occasional odd man rush up the ice but Lacy’s goalie Hunter Donleavey was spot on as well.
Lacy’s eventually broke the standoff seven minutes into the first period when Nathan Lacy sliced his way through three REG players to score. Kaitlyn Seifert’s effort on the forecheck continued to flummox REG’s breakout attempts but Curtiss eventually broke free and skated straight to net. Donleavey made the initial save but Deer followed to score on the rebound tying the game 1-1.
Lacy’s then took over in the second period with the effort of Cosmo “el halcon” Langsfeld on defense providing the foundation for their success on offense. After a frantic five minutes of hockey with both teams skating at a breakneck pace, Sam Kay eventually broke the tie scoring two goals in a matter of three minutes for a 3-1 Lacy’s lead.
REG had their chances during an ensuing powerplay but failed to beat Donleavey and Lacy’s tacked on a fourth goal when the tiny dancer and deft stick work effort of Jess Howard set up Zach Bever for a goal.
Lacy’s work in the third period kept REG pinned for most of the period save the random one-man attacks by Curtiss, Deer and Justin Blair. The effort of Max Carroll on defense provided additional hope for REG but Lacy’s ultimately threw everything, and everyone, they had on the ice at the REG net. Mikeska’s effort in net stopped the initial onslaught but with pressure come opportunities and with opportunities comes goals and eventually Rewk Patten assisted Bauer in the slot for the fifth Lacy’s goal.
Curtiss would eventually find a seam past Donleavey in the final two minutes of the game for REG’s second goal of the game but what was done was done as Lacy’s finished with the 5-2 win.
