The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Back at home this weekend
By Than Acuff
It appears the Crested Butte Titans hockey team can’t get a break. Just when they seemed to start clicking with players returning from injuries and finding their feet to bring additional options for the coaches, they fell in overtime to Pueblo County on Wednesday, January 22. Fortunately, they ended last week on a high note skating to a 5-1 win on Friday, January 24 over the Caprock Eagles.
The Titans came out strong against Pueblo County opening the scoring in the fifth minute as Marshall Spann skated coast-to-coast to score. Crested Butte continued to turn the screws on Pueblo County looking for a second goal, but Pueblo County held them off. Eleven minutes into the first period Pueblo County got their break and answered back to tie it up 1-1, but the Titans closed the first period making the most of two powerplays.
The first came during a powerplay in the 13th minute. The Titans work rate to get the puck deep and pressure the puck to keep it in Pueblo County’s zone opened a lane for Jake White to net and White stuffed it upper 90 for a 2-1 Titans’ lead.
Two minutes later the Titans were back on the powerplay, and patience was the key this time as a series of passes had the Pueblo County penalty kill scrambling. Spann took advantage of the situation from the point as he threaded a pass through to Max Dukeman on the weakside and Dukeman scored for a 3-1 lead.
“They seemed to have picked up right where they left off in the Liberty game, the first period was incredible,” says head coach Joey Otsuka. “We had seen them get scored on four or five times the exact same way on powerplays watching video on the bus ride and on Max’s goal they executed it. It was great.”
Crested Butte suffered a blow eight minutes into the second period though. After getting several chances during a 5v3 powerplay, a miscue at the blue line right when Pueblo’s fourth skater came on the ice sent two Pueblo players to the Titans net for a shorthanded goal to pull within one of Crested Butte.
The two teams would battle through the third period and the Titans held their 3-2 lead through it all. Pueblo County would eventually pull their goalie down the stretch and the move paid off as the puck slipped through in front of the Titans net and despite a goalie clamp and a whistle, the play continued, and Pueblo punched it home to tie the game and send it to overtime.
Crested Butte opened the overtime period in the driver’s seat immediately putting pressure on Pueblo County and resulting in a penalty shot for the Titans in the first minute of the overtime. The Pueblo goalie made the needed save to keep it tied up and 30 seconds later Pueblo County scored for the 4-3 Pueblo win.
“The message I told the team after the game was that I thought they played a well-rounded game that they deserved to win,” says Otsuka. “Sometimes life is unfair.”
The Titans remained on the road on Friday as they headed to Grand Junction to face Caprock and left nothing to chance skating to a 5-1 win.
Otsuka made sure that despite having beaten Caprock earlier in the season and Caprock still without a win, they were not to be overlooked.
“They took 11-0 Glenwood Springs to overtime, so I didn’t want this to be a ‘trap game’ for us,” says Otsuka. “Don’t be soft, nothing is a sure thing.”
The team took Otsuka’s words to heart and opened the game rattling off three goals in the first period started by Matej Voldan scoring off an assist from Dukeman during a powerplay three minutes into the game. Four minutes later the Titans struck again as Jonah Zobs assisted Cobin O’Connor on his goal and Spann added the third Titans’ goal to cap the first period outburst by Crested Butte.
Voldan tacked on his second goal of the game on another powerplay to open the second period for a 4-0 lead and O’Connor netted his second goal of the game late in the period off an assist by Floyd Sedunov for a 5-0 lead heading into the third period.
Caprock did manage to score one goal on a powerplay in the third period, but the Titans were well in charge to finish off the 5-1 win. Titans’ goalie Shane Mensing finished the game stopping 33 of Caprock’s 34 shots.
“It was the most relaxed, calm and free-wheelin’ that I’ve ever seen our team play,” says Otsuka. “We played like we knew we were going to win and finished as expected.”
Crested Butte is back at home this weekend for a couple of tough matchups as they host the sixth seeded Durango Demons on Friday, January 30 at 7 p.m. The Titans then go from the frying pan and into the fire as they host the number one team in 4A hockey, Glenwood Springs, on Saturday, February 1 at 5 p.m.
“I’m calling it Revenge Weekend,” says Otsuka. “We don’t have anything to lose. It’s about winning individual puck battles and asserting our confidence. The team that played them earlier in the season is not the team we are currently.”
