The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
FNG
By Than Acuff
Talk circulated after one week of the Crested Butte A/B town league hockey season about the proficiency of Bliss Chiropractic and a new player on their team, an FNG if you will, after he lit up the Eldo in the opening game of the season for five goals, so I’ve heard.
Not only that, but Bliss finished last year in last place with just three wins all season and now folks are pegging them as the top team this year already.
So, being the diligent sports reporter that I am, sometimes, I had to go see what all the fuss was about and catch Bliss Chiropractic playing Rocky Mountain Trees (RMT) Monday, January 12 at Big Mine Ice Arena. And while I think I saw what folks have been saying about the new guy, it was the seasoned veteran Billy Watson that stood out above the rest. In addition, it may be true that Bliss is real deal, as they skated to an 8-2 win over Rocky Mountain Trees.
The start was innocuous enough as Bliss did step on the front foot, but RMT was in place to defend and their goalie Al Sedaghat did make a couple of early saves to deny Watson early looks. But as time wore on in the first period, RMT wore down under the relentless Bliss attack and Watson found the back of the net in the seventh minute off an assist from Gus Hensley. FOURTY THREE (that’s how the White House spells it) seconds later Watson scored again thanks to an assist from Jack Weise and while RMT forward Dylan Curtiss did slice through Bliss to make a run at goal, Nicholas Mikeska made the save and Bliss responded with three more goals.
Watson would get on the other end of the next two goals assisting on strikes from Cameron Donoghue and Hensley and then Nick Couts set up Johnny Holton for a goal in the final 10 seconds of the first period for a 5-0 Bliss lead.
While promises of free tress from RMT for the refs was discussed during the break, provided they called more penalties on Bliss, the ploy never came to fruition and with Bliss defensemen, er defensepeople, Weise and Robin Gross holding at the blue line, Bliss continued to press.
RMT held it off at first and it wasn’t until the eighth minute of the second period that Bliss scored their sixth time as Jake Laramie slipped a tasty pass through traffic to set up Couts for a goal.
RMT would eventually respond as Jack Foersterling played a no-look backhand pass from the corner through the slot and to Mitch Bever on the back post for a goal to finish the second period.
So, while down 6-1, RMT did tie Bliss 1-1 in the second period and then seized on their momentum four minutes into the third period as Zach Bever fed Matt Wark for a goal. You may remember Wark from my town league hockey coverage 20-plus years ago when he played for town league team On Golden Pond.
Anyone?
Bueller?
Regardless, that would be it from RMT while Bliss decided to tack on two more goals down the stretch as Laramie assisted Holton on his second goal that evening and Watson assisted Donoghue for his second goal of the night to seal the 8-2 win and Bliss is now 2-0 with 16 goals scored and only two scored against. It’s still early though, way early.
