Titans hockey back on winning track

Play at home Friday, January 23 at 7 p.m.

By Than Acuff

The Crested Butte Titans hockey team got back on track last weekend outscoring their opponents 9-3 over two games and are now in third place in the 4A Mountain League.

Crested Butte had two tough outings the week prior against one of the top 4A teams in the state losing both by one goal, so the coaches looked to change things up a little bit for their game against the Pueblo County Hornets on Friday, January 16. The changes did have an initial impact as the players took some time to get comfortable, but the Titans eventually found their groove to skate to a 4-1 win.

“It took a little time to get used to it because many of us were playing with people we haven’t played with in a while,” says senior captain Luke Hartigan. “But once we got settled in, the chemistry was building, and it was good for the younger players to get the opportunity to get more ice time and gain confidence for the rest of the season.”

The Titans used a powerplay five minutes into the first period to start the scoring as Max Dukeman slid the puck cross ice to Emery White and White scored.

Pueblo County started to gain some energy as the period wore on but quality shifts from Colby Wark, Bud McWilliams and Ezra Paden helped keep the Titans out front and some big hustle from Floyd Sedunov broke up breakaways. Mason Nichols and Mason Crist put in quality efforts to hold the blue line and keep the Titans in the attacking zone but a second goal in the first period eluded them.

It didn’t take long to net their second goal though in the second period as Jonah Zobs slid the puck across to Nichols in their defensive zone and Nichols played the puck up to White. White skated past two Hornet players and fed Cole Hawley in the slot for him to score and take a 2-0 lead. Five minutes later Dukeman jumped on a loose puck on the weakside to score for a 3-0 Titans lead.

Key saves from Titans goalie JD Huresky toward the end of the second period helped to hold the three-goal lead period but the Hornets capitalized on a powerplay five minutes into the third period.

Before Pueblo County could do any further damage, the Titans’ penalty kill came through once again one minute later as White set up Dukeman for a shorthanded goal to cap the 4-1 win. Huresky finished the game with 24 saves.

“Honestly, I thought we kind of played down to them,” says coach Paul O’Connor.

Crested Butte then headed to Breckenridge on Saturday, January 18 for a rematch with Summit High School. The Titans beat Summit earlier in the season 6-1 but, since then, Summit handed the top team in the league, Steamboat Springs, its first loss of the season so Summit appeared to have gained some momentum since their past meeting.

The Titans wasted no time in quashing any initial energy from Summit as White won the opening faceoff, dumped the puck deep for Dukeman to chase and then Dukeman found White trailing in the slot for a goal 13 seconds into the game.

Summit shook off the initial strike to give the Titans problems the remainder of the first period and into the second period. Titans’ goalie Ryder Church continues to be lights out in net and turned away a couple of golden chances by Summit at the start of the second period, but Summit eventually broke the seal on the Titans’ net five minutes into the second period to tie it up 1-1.

Playing at home and bringing a physical game to the ice, that tying goal could easily have led to another for Summit, but the Titans responded a minute later as Ethan Suazo collected a puck in the defensive zone and turned on the afterburners to skate the length of the ice and score to put Crested Butte back on top 2-1.

“The goal to take the lead again was massive for us,” says Hartigan. “Regaining the lead gave us the momentum back and everyone was high energy and knew that we needed to retain the lead. You could tell the confidence and morale went up on the bench and everyone was mentally locked in to go out and finish the game.”

Summit ended up tying the game 2-2 later in the second period but the Titans responded once again as Hartigan and Dukeman connected for a goal by Hartigan and a 3-2 lead heading into the third period.

Seven minutes into the third period the Titans added to their lead on a powerplay. Patience and hustle to keep the puck in Summit’s zone during the powerplay resulted in Suazo’s second goal of the game and a 4-2 lead.

Crested Butte continued to put the wood to Summit with heavy puck pressure and for the second time in two games, they netted a shorthanded goal. When the Titans sent the puck up ice during a penalty kill, Dukeman caught the Summit defenseman slacking and outskated him to the puck to set up White trailing behind for a shorthanded goal finishing off the 5-2 win in style. Church finished the game stopping 30 of 32 Summit shots.

“Everyone put it out there in the third period,” says O’Connor. “Exceptional play and they were the team we want them to be.”

“As a team we came out ready to play in the third,” adds Hartigan. “We were connecting on breakouts, communication went up and, most importantly, effort went up which was crucial. We put together a good physical third period that gave us a crucial win.”

The Titans will host the Caprock Academy Eagles in Gunnison on Friday, January 23 at 7 p.m. as the team looks to continue to building consistency each and every game.

“They’ve had our number the last two games,” says O’Connor. “We’re just looking at it shift by shift and hopefully we get the job done. The moments we’re having are awesome, now we just need that for all three periods.”