The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“It’s a really good feeling to make the post season”
[ by Than Acuff ]
The Crested Butte Titans hockey team closed out the regular season falling to the Aspen Skiers and the Kent Denver Sun Devils but hopes to find some momentum as they head into the state playoffs.
The Aspen game on Friday, February 18 provided an opportunity to honor graduating seniors Jack Lambert, Connor Zummach, and Evan Sowars as well as a chance for the Titans to build some energy with everyone back from injuries.
And, in the first period, it looked as if the Titans were on the right track. While the Skiers pressed hard to try and rattle Crested Butte early on, the Titans defense did the job to hold off the opening attack including the effort of Lambert to shut down a two-on-one breakaway.
Once the Titans gathered their composure at both ends of the ice, they capitalized on a power play in the sixth minute when Connor Zummach followed on a shot from the point to score.
Aspen continued to look for chances with physical play and picked up the pace but Crested Butte remained composed as goalie TJ Wonnacott stopped a one-on-one and the Titans’ penalty kill did their job at the end of the first period to hold their one-goal lead. The only downside was losing Grady Dietrich to a game misconduct penalty for the rest of the game.
“We’ve had penalty trouble before and when we lost Grady, we had to shuffle some lines,” says coach Billy Watson. “I thought we had our chances to put a few away in the first period and we didn’t.”
Crested Butte had numerous power play chances throughout the second period as well as tempers started to flare and Aspen started losing their composure. After coming up short throughout the period, the Titans took advantage of a four-on-four situation in the final minute as two quick passes on their breakout set Sam Dukeman up ice with a clean lane to net and Dukeman scored for a 2-0 Titans’ lead heading into the third period.
“It was an awesome pass out of the zone and tic-tac-toe pretty much to Dukeman,” says Watson. “That was a big momentum boost for us.”
Unfortunately, inconsistency struck the Titans again as Aspen scored on a powerplay in the opening minute and then tied the game six minutes later.
“As soon as they got one you could see the kids were just deflated,” says Watson.
A Titans’ penalty late in the third then resulted in Aspen’s third goal and after a frantic final minute with the goalie pulled, Crested Butte still came up short losing 3-2.
“It comes down to one word, consistency,” says Watson. “It’s tough because we see them hand it to teams one period and then pull a complete 360 the next period. When you have that many five-on-three opportunities, you need to capitalize. We weren’t moving the puck quickly enough and finding the open guys.”
That inconsistency continued to plague the Titans the following day as they headed to Denver to play Kent Denver.
After a strong opening five minutes, the Titans got pulled down to Kent Denver’s level and fell behind 1-0. They moved some players around to try and inspire some offense but the Sun Devils scored two more in the second period.
The Titans got a surge early in the third period when Lambert and Dukeman connected to score in the third minute and they proceeded to peppering Kent Denver the entire period holding the puck in their zone almost the entire time. But Kent Denver’s goalie came up huge with saves and while the Titans ended up outshooting Kent Denver 36-18 on the game, they lost 4-1 when the Sun Devils scored one final empty net goal.
“We laid it all out on the line and their goalie made some great saves,” says Watson.
And while the coaches and players were convinced their season was over, Crested Butte got a second life when they found out on Monday that they were given the 10th and final spot in the 4A state tournament. They open with a game against the seventh seeded Rampart Rams on Thursday, February 24. A win there would set them up for their third game against top-ranked Battle Mountain.
“It’s a blessing,” says Watson. “It’s a really good feeling to make the post season.”
