The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Good news, bad news
By Than Acuff
The good news, the holiday break seems to have given the Crested Butte Titans hockey team some time to heal as there were fewer injured players on their bench last weekend than have been there all season.
“It was nice to get some players back,” says coach Joey Otsuka.
The bad news is that they only had one chance to practice over the break to prepare for the Summit Tigers, last year’s 4A state runners up.
“They still had their core from last year, so we knew it was going to be a tough opponent,” says Otsuka.
And they were as the Titans ran into a buzzsaw in the Summit Tigers and their hot goalie dropping both games on Friday and Saturday, January 3-4.
It was a somewhat subdued start to the game Friday night while the Titans got their skates underneath them following the long break but soon started to pick up play and match the Tigers. After Summit’s initial attempts were denied by Titans’ goalie Gustav DesAuliners and the hustle of the Titans players, Summit eventually connected to set up their first goal of the game five minutes into the first period.
Cobin O’Connor, one of the players back in action after spending most of the season recovering from an injury, brought some energy to the ice hustling back to break up a Summit attack and firing a shot but the Summit goalie was on point to deny all Titan looks.
The Tigers maintained much of the puck possession through the remainder of the first period, but the Titans accepted the challenge to hold of the Summit attack. Titan defenseman Matej Voldan made one last solo effort in the waning moments of the first period skating coast-to-coast to create a Titans opportunity but that fizzled leaving the Titans down 1-0 at the end of the first period.
“I really liked how we were still in the game,” says Otsuka. “Gustav was playing amazing”
A Titans penalty early in the second period put Summit on the powerplay and they capitalized with a goal to go up 2-0. The Tigers had gained another step during the break between periods and kept the pressure up on the Titans. Summit picked up a penalty in the 10th minute of the period and the Titans set up shop to create. Marshall Spann got off a couple of shots and the Titans did the same on another powerplay opportunity but couldn’t crack the seal on the Summit net.
Luke Hartigan’s effort toward the end of the second period helped inspire another late period surge by the Titans, but the Summit goalie made all the necessary stops to preserve their 2-0 lead at the close of the second period.
Down just two goals, Crested Butte opened the third period inspired looking to pull back in the game. Their initial effort set up an opportunity as Carson Zummach set up Hartigan for a one-on-one with the Tiger goalie, but he proved, once again, impenetrable.
One minute later the Titans suffered another penalty and the Tigers made them pay once again scoring their second powerplay goal of the game to build a 3-0 lead. The Titans had their chances on their own powerplay one minute later and with Ethan Suazo winning faceoffs, Crested Butte had a couple of more looks on the Summit goal but to no avail.
Summit eventually scored a fourth goal in the 11th minute of the third period and while Crested Butte kept plugging away to open some shots down the stretch, Summit’s goalie was committed to the shutout and shut down the Titan shooters to seal the 4-0 win. DesAuliners finished the game stopping 41 of 45 shots.
The two teams met again on Saturday with Summit skating to an 8-0 win. DesAuliners and Shane Mensing shared the job in net for Crested Butte.
“We got off to a rough start and over time the wheels kind of fell off,” says Otsuka. “Overall, we learned a little bit more about our defensive structure and that our offensive pressure needs to be more sustained, working together more and moving up the ice as a team with a lot better support off the puck so we’re going to get more reps on that this week.”
The Titans remain at home this week as they host Caprock Academy at Jorgensen Ice Arena on Friday, January 10 at 7 p.m. before hitting the road Saturday for a rematch against Battle Mountain.
“Those are two winnable games,” says Otsuka.
