Crested Butte Titans hockey splits games on the road

“Sometimes you got to lose one to learn and win the next one”

By Than Acuff

The two-game road trip started on a high note last weekend for the Crested Butte Titans hockey team as they rolled to a 6-1 win over the Durango Demons on Friday, January 30, but then stumbled on Saturday falling short of a third period comeback to lose to Glenwood Springs 4-3.

The Titans had an easy time with Durango earlier in the season taking the Demons down 7-1 but there was something different about the second win that had coach Paul O’Connor a bit happier with the effort.

“We had some great plays, good team goals and good passing goals,” says O’Connor.

It all started five minutes into the first period with the second line as a pass up ice sent Ethan Suazo deep into Durango’s zone. He knocked a Demon off the puck, got it back to Jackson Moore and the puck eventually landed on Cobin O’Connor’s stick for him to stuff in his first goal of the season.

Six minutes later the Titans struck again as Jonah Zobs carried the puck out of the defensive zone and when Emery White got a hold of it, he skated through the Demon players to score for a 2-0 lead. Moments later a penalty had the Titans on the powerplay and a series of passes from Suazo to Max Dukeman to Luke Hartigan set up a third goal for a 3-0 lead by the end of the first period.

Crested Butte remained in control to open the second period as the senior line scored two minutes in, when White circled through the offensive zone to find Dukeman open and Dukeman added one more pass to set up Hartigan for his second goal of the game.

Paul then gave the nod to back up goalie John Dempsey and put him in net and his teammates continued to pour it on. Dukeman set up White for the Titans’ fifth goal and Kaiden Bartelli put the finishing touches on the Titans’ offensive output scoring at the end of the second period with Crested Butte skating to an eventual 6-1 win.

Crested Butte remained on the road that evening and headed to Glenwood Springs the next day and proved a bit road and game weary when they started out the first period.

Heavy forechecking and a frantic pace by Glenwood Springs had the Titans off their game and Glenwood Springs built a 2-0 lead in the first period.

“It was not a great first period,” says Paul. “I think it may have been because of our slow opponent the day before. We played catch up from then on.”

“Our start against Glenwood was definitely rough,” adds Hartigan. “They outskated and outworked us pretty much the entire period. We weren’t winning battles or using our breakouts and our minds in the correct way.”

Crested Butte appeared to have recovered to open the second period with some more spring in their skates scoring on the opening faceoff as White set up Hartigan for a goal. Unfortunately, they were dealt a blow as Glenwood Springs responded with a goal 15 seconds later to go out front 3-1. Crested Butte continued to battle and matched Glenwood’s energy on into the third period before they were dealt yet another blow as Glenwood scored again in the opening minute for a 4-1 lead.

While a devastating blow, Crested Butte continued to fight with plenty of game left. Their efforts paid off seven minutes into the third period as Dukeman scored off an assist from White. Three minutes later Floyd Sedunov scooped up a loose puck and passed it to Charlie Reamer. Reamer took a beat then sent it back to Sedunov and Sedunov scored to pull the Titans to within one of Glenwood Springs with seven minutes left in the game.

That would be then end of Crested Butte’s comeback though as Glenwood Springs held on through the final stretch to eke out the 4-3 win.

“We put ourselves in a tough spot being down 4-1,” says Hartigan. “We got success by working as hard as we could, every second of every shift. We also started to move the puck well as a unit which is key for success, but it was a little bit late. I think it taught us that there’s not a single period, or second, we can take off the rest of the season. It’s all business from here on.”

“I saw a lot of fight in that third period, it just didn’t work out,” adds Paul. “Sometimes you got to lose one to learn and win the next one.”

Their next chance to apply what they’ve learned is this Saturday, February 7 at home when they host Aspen at 5 p.m. in Gunnison.

“I expect Aspen to come out hard and bring everything they have,” says Hartigan. “If we play our game and show up ready to go, we can get it done but it’s going to take effort and we’re going to need to execute and play with urgency.”