Titans hockey pushes Battle Mountain to limit

Home game Friday, January 16 at 6 p.m.

By Than Acuff 

After cruising to a 6-1 win over Summit High School two weeks ago, the Crested Butte Titans hockey team needed to step up their effort for a doubleheader with the Battle Mountain Huskies Friday and Saturday, January 9-10. And while they did, it still wasn’t quite enough as they fell to the Huskies in both games.

Battle Mountain came into Gunnison to face the Titans sitting in second place in the Mountain League with a record of 6-1-1 and ranked fourth in 4A hockey. It would be a true test of where the Titans were at this point in the season.

While Battle Mountain looked to establish their high-paced game early, Crested Butte threatened in the opening minute as a look for Luke Hartigan just missed the target and their hustle eventually led to a Huskies’ penalty five minutes into the game.

The Huskies penalty kill was fast and furious creating instant puck pressure, but the Titans forechecking efforts helped keep the puck in the attacking zone for a couple more looks on goal only to be denied.

Battle Mountain came out of the penalty kill looking to establish their disciplined style of play but Crested Butte’s defensive positioning and the outstanding work of Ryder Church in net continued to frustrate the Huskies. It also rattled them a bit as the Titans were able to create additional scoring chances from broken plays, but Battle Mountain’s speed made up for it as they recovered quickly to protect the house and deny the Titans leaving the two teams locked 0-0 at the end of the first period.

The Titans continued to create chances on broken plays, and the third line of Zander Zacher, Charlie Reamer and Ezra Paden was part of that as Zacher seized on a loose puck off pressure from Paden and Reamer five minutes into the second period to fire a shot saved by the effort of the Battle Mountain goalie.

A Titans penalty put Battle Mountain on the powerplay seven minutes into the period, but Crested Butte’s penalty kill was spot on and even created a short-handed goal chance leaving the Huskies with nothing notable during their powerplay opportunity.

“The best part of our game continues to be our penalty kill,” says Titans coach Paul O’Connor.

The Titans got additional scoring chances from their first line as well as Hartigan and Max Dukeman both found seams around the Huskies net but were turned away by stops from the Battle Mountain goalie once again.

“Their goalie was good,” says O’Connor. “We’re getting momentum off all three lines but we’re looking for production.”

Crested Butte showed no signs of slowing down though and were trading off attacks with the Huskies through the remainder of the second period and the two teams remained tied 0-0 heading into the third.

Battle Mountain eventually broke the seal on the Crested Butte net three minutes into the third period. Church had been standing on his head all game and after shutting down a one-on-one, a two-on-one 40 seconds later proved too much to handle, and the Huskies went up 1-0.

A goal like that, after the effort so far, can decimate team’s morale but the Titans stuck with it, and they finally got their just reward. Once again, a broken play in neutral ice led to Hartigan and Emery White finding some space. Hartigan sent the puck to White and White fired a wrist shot to pick the upper corner and tie the game 1-1.

The two teams continued to trade off chances through the remaining 10 minutes of the game and both goalies came up with massive saves including another one-on-one stop by Church with time running out to send the game into overtime.

Crested Butte had one chance, and one chance only, early in the overtime period as they opened with a powerplay and created an open look that would just miss the mark. Once the Huskies killed off the penalty, they saw a chance and took it scoring the game winner to dash the hopes of a Titans upset win. Church finished the game with 28 saves.

“When they scored in the third period we didn’t give up and I was very proud of the team for that,” says Hartigan. “We came up short in overtime, but we gained confidence that we could beat them on Saturday.”

The Titans returned to the ice the next day looking to avenge the overtime loss, but Battle Mountain had an extra gear through the opening period and struck first for a 1-0 lead. But when the Huskies drew a penalty three minutes later, Crested Butte pounced as Hartigan dug the puck out of the corner, got it to Ethan Suazo who then found Jake White on the doorstep for him to punch it through tying the game 1-1.

Crested Butte woke up and started to match the Huskies energy in the second period and into the third period. But the Huskies remained relentless in their efforts, and they retook the lead 11 minutes into the third period and held on to hand the Titans another tough 2-1 loss. Church finished this game stopping 51 of 53 shots.

“Ryder had an all-state performance all weekend,” says O’Connor. “I don’t think they were our two best games. We hung in there, but we were chasing a lot. Overall, it was a good weekend, I would have loved to come away with at least one win.”

The Titans host Pueblo County on Friday, January 16 at 6 p.m. and then head to Breckenridge on Saturday to face Summit High School.

“We’re steadily getting better and getting more confident and I’m proud of their emotional maturity, we’ll just keep climbing” says O’Connor.

“Two close losses were definitely tough, but I think we learned a lot from them that we can take to the rest of the season,” adds Hartigan.