Ties abound at town league hockey Sunday night

“You want a beer grandpa?”

By Than Acuff 

Once again, the roof provides.

Just last week the roof at Big Mine Ice Arena saved the ice from the onslaught of sun. Now, it saved the ice from the onslaught of snow. As a result, C/B town league hockey was in action Sunday night, unofficially dubbed Kiss Your Sister Sunday, as both games ended in 2-2 ties.

 It all started with the 6 p.m. game between Gunnison Bank & Trust (GB&T) and CB Electric and while two goals from CJ Hoover assisted by Kari Roberts and Gigi Jensen had GB&T up 2-0 heading into the third period, Shawn Williams scored off an assist from Mollye Erickson midway through the third period for CB Electric and then Erickson got on the end of a pass from Nick Catmur to score the game-tying goal with 42 seconds left.

Pucker up sis.

The second game of the night between Altitude Painting and Ska was similar, but different, and had a lot to do with the effort of a couple of Inglorious Batters, the Grandpa/Granddaughter combination of Dick and Melanie Whiting, THE Jack Gibbons, a couple random efforts by others and a capacity crowd of a handful of people including, but not limited to, retired Crested Butte town planner John Hess. Which should tell you that Crested Butte Town League hockey is, aside from the 4 Nations Face-Off, the hottest thing on ice.

And while the game did end in a tie, it was not without some excitement. Bobby Crimi and Jack Foersterling led the charge for Altitude Painting up and down the ice looking to create and disrupt as Ska settled into their pinpoint passing and perfect positional play that has led them to the… middle of the C/B town league table.

Nonetheless, they do play a good game of rec league hockey, but it was pure passion that led Altitude Painting to a 1-0 lead as Crimi broke free up the ice to skate to net and fire a shot. Ryan Houseman stacked the pads to make the initial save, but Mike Butcher was there to score on the rebound. Two minutes later Altitude Painting struck again as Stevie Kremer slipped the puck up the boards to Bronwyn Walton and Walton picked the near post on Houseman for a 2-0 lead.

But patience would eventually pay off for Ska over the next two periods and it showed in the opening minutes of the second period. While Altitude Painting was set up to build on their lead with a powerplay in the opening minutes of the second period, late Ska roster addition Stu Jernigan helped Ska remain poised and threatening to score shorthanded goals on several occasions. They didn’t but they did eventually score eight minutes into the second period when Dick’s positioning helped keep the puck in the offensive zone and set up Matt Gutter for a goal.

Ska continued to turn the screws in the waning minutes of the second period, but Altitude Painting goalie Nicholas Mikeska was on full denial between the pipes and the puck cleared from harm’s way to help Altitude preserve their slim one-goal lead.

They continued their preservation ways throughout the third period as Ska searched for holidays in Altitude Painting’s defense with little success. Their efforts eventually bore fruit after pounding the slot with pucks, Ska finally looked to the high slot and found Mark Cram open for a shot. Cram fired, Mikeska saved but Gutter scored his second goal of the game on the rebound to tie the game 2-2. Ska remained on the attack in the final two minutes of play but to no avail as the second game of the night also ended in a 2-2 tie.

Pucker up again sis.