The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“Hopefully we can close out one of these, it’d be a nice Christmas present”
By Than Acuff
After trouncing the Aspen Leafs Tuesday, December 9 on the road, the Crested Butte Titans fell to the defending 4A state champion Steamboat Springs Sailors twice over the past weekend.
Aspen would be a unique challenge for the Titans, one that could go several ways depending on composure. In the end, composure was the name of the game for the Titans as they stayed out of the penalty box to let their play do the talking and rolled to a 7-1 win.
The Titans took a 2-0 lead in the first period on a goal from Max Dukeman five minutes into the game and then a powerplay goal by Floyd Sedunov four minutes later. A second powerplay goal, this time by Luke Hartigan, in the opening minute of the second period sparked a four-goal outburst by the Titans. Aspen slipped a goal in the mix but Ethan Suazo, Hartigan and Dukeman all scored as well putting the Titans up 6-1 heading into the third period.
After assisting two earlier goals, Emery White got on the scoring end with a shorthanded goal in the third period to cap the 7-1 win for the Titans. Goalie Ryder Church finished the game with 22 saves.
“That was our best game,” says coach Paul O’Connor. “Our senior line had five points and really we had great performances by all lines.”
The Titans would then face their biggest challenge of the season thus far as they hosted the Steamboat Sailors at Jorgensen Ice Arena on Friday and Saturday, December 12-13. The Sailors are the defending 4A state champions and came into Gunnison with a 3-0 record, outscoring opponents 20-3.
“We had a mix of three-win confidence and home ice jitters,” says O’Connor. “Playing well in front of our home crowd.”
While an intimidating opponent on paper, the Titans didn’t flinch as they opened the scoring in the first minute of the game winning a faceoff in Steamboat’s defensive zone for Hartigan to take and pick the upper corner for a 1-0 Titans’ lead.
Crested Butte built off of the immediate goal with energy and smart defending as team positional play was spot on to create heavy puck pressure and disrupt Steamboat’s rhythm with poke checks and backchecks leaving the Sailors off balance.
Steamboat’s diligence would eventually pay off though. While Church came up with a big save to shut down an open look on net for Steamboat and the Titans killed off a penalty, Steamboat eventually tied the game 10 minutes into the first period and remained on the front foot the final five minutes of the period but quality shifts from Crested Butte’s line of Cole Hawley, Suazo, Cobin O’Connor and defensive pairing of Floyd Sedunov and Jake White was the main ingredient to keeping the game tied 1-1 heading into the second period.
“That first goal was beautiful, but we needed to get more shots after that,” says O’Connor. “You can’t let them get comfortable. We needed a little more thought than just raw energy.”
The Titans had a chance to retake the lead in the opening minutes of the second period. Consecutive penalties by Steamboat had the Titans on the powerplay, including a minute of 5v3, but the Sailors penalty kill proved tough to crack and even had a shorthanded scoring opportunity before Emery broke it up with a big hustle backcheck.
While Steamboat remained in the driver’s seat for most of the period, Crested Butte turned it up for the final five minutes to create chances, but the Sailor defense and goalie did what was needed to stave off the Titan attack and the teams headed into the third period still notched in a 1-1 tie.
“Our second period was much better,” says O’Connor. “They were just really good at keeping us away from the net.”
Keeping the better teams close is the recipe for success and Crested Butte had done just that through two periods and when the third period opened, the Titans continued that effort as the two teams traded attacks. But a Titans penalty three minutes into the third period had the Sailors on a powerplay and they seized the opportunity to score and take a 2-1 lead.
Crested Butte remained on point though and continue to go toe-to-toe with the Sailors. Both Dukeman and Mason Nichols had scoring chances mid-period, and the game was well within reach for the Titans, but time was running out. Eventually the Titans were forced to pull the goalie looking for the game-tying goal and the Sailors finished it off with an empty net goal for the 3-1 win. Church finished the game recording 43 saves.
With Church out due to a concussion, JD Huresky was called upon to play in goal for the Titans when they faced Steamboat on Saturday.
While the Titans defense held Steamboat to nearly half the shots they had the game before, Crested Butte’s scoring woes continued into their second showdown as the Sailors scored once in each period to skate away with a 3-0 win. Huresky finished the game with 25 saves.
“Their defense is very good and did a good job of keeping us out of shooting areas,” says O’Connor. “We can skate with those guys we just had trouble with running our systems over their systems. We need to get things running smoother and finding the winning formula against those bigger teams. You just can’t make mistakes, or they will capitalize on them.”
The Titans hit the road on Friday, December 19 to take on Caprock Academy in Grand Junction and the return home to host Durango on Saturday, December 20 at Jorgensen Ice Arena at 12:30 p.m. before heading into the holiday break.
“We definitely want to finish strong going into the holidays,” says O’Connor. “Hopefully we can close out one of these, it’d be a nice Christmas present.”
