The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
A/B league brings pace to Big Mine
By Than Acuff
While the C/B league has been a breath of fresh air to town league hockey bringing former local hockey players back into the fold, the A/B league is refreshing as well as it allows players to optimize their talent and speed without the consternation of others. It’s all in, all the time and everyone on the ice knows it.
But Monday’s A/B league game between Lacy’s Construction and Alpine Lumber was special for a whole other reason with seven, possibly eight (the years all meld together), former Crested Butte Wolfpack players on the ice.
Who were the Wolfpack, you may ask? Why am I reading this, you may also ask. Well, the Wolfpack was the OG local high school age hockey team. Before there were the Titans and before there was the West Elk Hockey Association, there was the Wolfpack and many of them are back home and playing town league hockey. Not only that but Lacy’s Construction has the Langsfeld brothers, Cosmo and Quinn, playing together.
Well isn’t that special.
It is. You know what else is special, or rather was special—the Appalachian Turkey Melt at Karolina’s Kitchen.
But that’s neither here nor there so let’s get back to the game.
With Alpine Lumber missing a couple of key players for the game, Lacy’s took immediate control from the opening face-off and set up in Alpine’s zone firing shots nearly at will. Alpine goalie Nicholas Mikeska came up with numerous saves to stave off the initial attack, but Lacy’s eventually put one past Mikeska five minutes into the game when Christopher Leavitt sent the puck up the boards to Sam Kay and Kay skated free to net to beat Mikeska for a 1-0 lead.
The initial goal did nothing to Mikeska’s confidence though as he continued to make save after save throughout the rest of the first period as Alpine started to gain their feet and provide an assortment of counterattacks yet remained down a goal by the close of the first period.
Alpine started winning the battles along the boards and in neutral ice to open the second period and their invigorated play resulted in a goal when Joe Coburn capitalized on confusion in front of Lacy’s net to score and tie the game 1-1.
Lacy’s fired right back though a minute later when Collin Vossen saw a seam to shoot on net and fired. Mikeska made the initial save, but Dakota Wiggins followed to punch the rebound in for a 2-1 Lacy’s lead. Lacy’s tacked on another goal when Vossen slipped into the slot to take a pass from Quinn to score. Two minutes later Lacy’s was about to add a fourth goal when Leavitt broke loose and onto the Alpine net only to be robbed of the chance when Jack Weise hustled back to disrupt the play with a massive backcheck.
Weise’s effort then turned the tide in Alpine’s favor, albeit briefly, as they won a faceoff in Lacy’s zone and Ryan Carroll slipped the puck to Cole Hanson and Hanson beat Lacy goalie Logan Brennise with a quick strike to pull Alpine back within one heading into the third period.
The constant pressure by Lacy’s through the first two periods would eventually wear Alpine down by the midway point of the third period as both Wiggins and Emmet Subka scored for Lacy’s to finish off Alpine Lumber 5-2 and remain tied for first place with Rocky Mountain Trees in the A/B league.
