The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Helle yeah!
By Than Acuff
Rocky Mountain Trees had a rocky mountain start to the season recording just one win in their first six games but have since been on a tear winning their last three including their latest win over Lacy’s Construction and scoring 23 goals in the process. Or, as they say in Canada, PROH-cess.
It wasn’t looking good for Lacy’s prior to the game with their goalie MIA, but Carter Brock volunteered for the spot and proved worthy of the task matching the effort of Rocky Mountain Trees seasoned netminder Al Sedeghat for a majority of the game.
Brock made his presence known in the opening seconds as Rocky Mountain Trees won the opening faceoff and skated straight to goal for an open look only to be denied by Brock. Moments later Sedeghat showed his ilk when he robbed Quinn Langsfeld of the upper corner with a glove save and fans in attendance were already making comparisons to Hellebuyck’s Olympic performance.
Quinn and his brother, published novelist Cosmo Langsfeld, continued to fire shots from the point for Lacy’s and while Rocky Mountain Trees handled the pressure well, it eventually opened up a space for Dakota Wiggins to feed Sam Kay for the opening goal and a 1-0 Lacy’s lead.
Lacy’s added to their lead 90 seconds later when Jeff Smith stripped a puck in neutral ice and passed it off to Wiggins for Wiggins to skate to net and score.
But Rocky Mountain Trees had a much deeper bench and were committed to staying spread out and moving the puck and their efforts would lead to a last push in the waning moments of the first period setting up Mike Morgan for a goal at the sound of the period-ending horn.
The hits kept coming in the second period with both teams creating great scoring opportunities and both goalies coming up with great saves until the seventh minute of the period when Brock’s initial stops on a flurry of shots did the job until Wyley Hodgson set up Matt Wark for a goal, tying the game 2-2.
Rocky Mountain Trees struck again two minutes later as Jack Morgan set up Mitch Bever for a goal to go up 3-2 but the celebration was short-lived as Kay set up Wiggins for a goal tying the game 3-3 heading into the third period.
The aforementioned deep bench for Rocky Mountain Trees would ultimately bear fruit, been waiting all article for that one, in the third period as they would rattle off the next three goals. Bever recovered from an outright penalty mid-play to set up Morgan for Rocky Mountain Trees’ fourth goal.
Lacy’s did set up several chance in the following minutes but with Sedeghat still in the zone and the Trees defense still in position, Lacy’s threats were abated and Rocky Mountain Trees sealed up the win in the final two minutes with Morgan setting up Bever for his second goal of the game and Morgan completing the hat trick for the 6-3 Rocky Mountain Trees win.
