The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
In the early game…
By Than Acuff
Fresh snow and sub-zero temperatures? As Aine Falter used to say, Hells yeah.
And that’s what we got right now as folks are skiing powder and folks are playing town league hockey when it’s -6 Fahrenheit, maybe colder, but that didn’t slow anyone down in A/B town league hockey action on Monday, January 26.
The evening started off with a tie and ended with a tie but that doesn’t mean it was boring in the least as in both instances, the lower ranked team mounted the comeback.
It started with the early game as fourth-placed Alpine Lumber took on the top team in the league Bliss Chiropractic and after falling behind 3-0 in the first period, Alpine Lumber clawed their way back to eventually tie the game 3-3 thanks to two goals from Jeff Snyder and one from Slater Weil, both of whom grew up playing hockey right here in Crested Butte.
Fifth-placed Rocky Mountain Trees then faced third-placed Lacy Construction in the late game, and it didn’t look favorable for the Trees as they started the game with just two subs on the bench while Lacy had a full deck. To make matters seemingly worse, Leila Nichols scored off an assist from Dakota Wiggins, also a couple of homegrowns, for Lacy Construction just 20 seconds into the game.
But Rocky Mountain Trees showed the resilience of a massive oak to match Lacy Construction with some exemplary play and effort of their own. Mitch Bever and Mike Morgan created a couple of scoring chances for the Trees and with Patrick Walsh defending the house and Matt Schmalz and Jack Foersterling providing additional key shifts on defense, Rocky Mountain Trees was unbending against the Lacy Construction attack.
Dylan Curtiss then joined his Trees team on the bench, and they started to step on the gas even more. But Lacy Construction has a lot of firepower, and they would tack on a second goal later in the first period when Jason Keener fired a shot and Sophie Morpurgo jumped on the rebound to score for a 2-0 lead.
Inspired by the continuous efforts of Wiggins, Lacy Construction scored a third goal three minutes into the second period. It started with heavy forechecking by Lacy Construction in the offensive zone and finished with a blistering shot from the point by Quinn Langsfeld, another homegrown, through traffic and into the back of the net.
Eventually the solid supporting cast and near perfect team defensive positioning would open up more room for Morgan to move and he made the most of it as he scored back-to-back goals for Rocky Mountain Trees and just like that, we had ourselves a game. Wiggins would respond though going coast-to-coast to score with three seconds left in the period to put Lacy Construction up 4-2, but Rocky Mountain Trees showed no signs of folding and ramped up their effort in the third period with Ben Barocas joining the team for one more sub on the bench.
Rocky Mountain Trees was buzzing and relentless in their attack. Lacy Construction was equally amped for the final period as the two teams traded punches. In the end, Rocky Mountain Trees would land two punches as Morgan finished off his hat trick with three minutes left in the game and then Barocas capped the Trees comeback tipping in a shot from Curtiss for a 4-4 tie by the sound of the final horn.
