The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“It’s going to come down to a kitten’s whisker”
By Than Acuff
During an Olympic figure skating competition, yes, I was watching figure skating, the commentator said, “This is close. It’s going to come down to a kitten’s whisker.” You know what wasn’t close and didn’t come down to a kitten’s whisker, the A/B town league hockey game Monday, February 9 between Alpine Lumber and Kochevar’s as a short bench spelled the 6-1 demise of Alpine Lumber.
When the two teams faced each other earlier this season it was a scoring frenzy before Kochevar’s eked out a 9-7 win and is currently the top scoring team in the league and sitting in first place. Conversely, Alpine Lumber has been known to light the lamp quite a bit as well and just a little over a week ago lit up their opponent, who shall remain nameless, for 10 goals. So, pre-game prognosticators, if there were any, would have predicted another high-scoring slugfest.
One problem, Alpine Lumber was missing some key players for the game, but they had Al Sedaghat in net, and he came up with numerous saves in the first period until the eighth minute when Sam Reaman found Henry Hodde in the high slot and Hodde fired it past Sedaghat for a 1-0 Kochevar’s lead.
Kochevar’s goalie Ryan Housman was on point as well to deny the handful of Alpine Lumber shots he saw and while Kochevar’s continued to press, both Alpine Lumber player Erin Kelly and late roster addition Kiley Chrisman made clutch plays to keep Kochevar’s to their one-goal lead.
A Kochevar’s penalty, by a player who shall remain nameless, three minutes into the second period offered up Alpine Lumber a powerplay and they capitalized as Cole Hanson dropped the puck to Slater Weil and Weil blasted a one-time slapshot past Houseman to tie the game 1-1.
Thirty seconds later Kochevar’s responded though as Reaman picked the upper corner off an assist from Hodde to put them back out front. Carlee Drobnick came close to tying it back up when she stripped the puck off a Kochevar’s skater and fired a shot, but Houseman made the quick save.
Kochevar’s eventually added to their lead late in the second period when Reaman and Rob Holleran connected for some back-and-forth play to create mayhem and that’s where Holleran shines as he punched the puck through the chaos for a 3-1 lead by the end of the second period.
Betsy Welsh came close to joining her Kochevar’s teammates on the stat sheet when she fired a shot early in the third period only to be denied by another Sedaghat save. But she wasn’t done as three minutes later she drove to the net and set up Holleran for his second goal of the game.
The next three minutes were a series of rushes by both teams looking for more goals, but it wasn’t until Alpine Lumber mysteriously pulled their goalie with four minutes left in the game did Kochevar’s score again as Hodde picked the open net for a 5-1 lead.
Holleran eventually finished off his hat trick scoring off an assist from Reaman down the stretch to ultimately deconstruct Alpine Lumber 6-1.
