The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Title games Thursday
[ by Than Acuff ]Somehow, hockey always wins when Mother Nature throws a curveball. Not only are hockey games now being played in outdoor stadiums in Florida where the air temperature is 65 degrees Fahrenheit, but when the temperatures in Crested Butte rendered Big Mine Ice Arena unplayable, league commissioner and all things hockey Bill Frame shifted the post season to the indoor rink in Gunnison, once again proving hockey will always win, no matter what.
And what a venue as the Crested Butte town league teams are treated to indoor ice complete with music from the scorer’s booth. As one official pointed out prior to the C/B playoff game Sunday, March 15 between GB&T and Ska Brewing, “I bet a lot of these guys haven’t even played on indoor ice.”
Not only that but the game had its fair share of elder statesmen on the ice with the aforementioned Frame, Michael Blunck and Jack Gibbons all playing, and playing well I might add. These guys have 60-70 years of local hockey, both playing and coaching, between them. So, let’s take a moment to give credit where credit is due.
Ska Brewing, or specifically Matt Gutter, had a plan in place early as Gutter lurked in the neutral zone for Ska looking to break free, but GB&Ts positional play left no room for odd man rushes. That said, Ska did fire off the first couple of shots, but GB&T remained committed to getting the puck deep in an attempt to set up some offense. Ska defensemen Michael Blunck and Mark Cram were keen to that plan though and their efforts disrupted GB&T’s plans.
Cram also showed some pace for Ska, the same pace that tallied him a Chainless title, flying up and down the ice to create offense and deny GB&T attacks but as the period wore on, GB&T started to build momentum. Thomas McLean had a golden chance to score with a minute left in the first period after slicing and dicing through the Ska players to shoot only to be denied by goalie Kurt Peterson. But moments later GB&T got a return on their interest as they won the ensuing faceoff and Lee “powsurfer” Pownall set up Drew Holbrook for a goal and a 1-0 GB&T lead.
That lead lasted all of about 40 seconds though as Ska scored in the opening minute of the second period when Blunck cutoff a breakout pass and fired a shot on net that Sioux Emery tipped in to tie it up 1-1.
Both teams raised the bar in the second period with better passing and faster skating, but GB&T raised it more. Jeff Duke took a pass from Scott Reamer to fire a shot and score with five minutes left in the second period for a 2-1 GB&T lead. Two minutes later McLean set up Adam Chater in the high slot for a goal and two minutes after that, Prawit Durgan assisted Chater for his second goal of the game and a 4-1 GB&T lead heading into the third period.
Peterson did his job in the third period with a flurry of saves to hold off additional GB&T attacks and Ska defenseman James Brennan hit the deck, got up and back on his horse to hustle back to deny another GB&T scoring chance with a last season backcheck but Ska’s efforts defensively did not translate to goals offensively as GB&T closed out the 4-1 win.
It all comes to a head on Thursday, March 19 with the C/B title game in Gunnison at 7:15 p.m. and the A/B league title game at 9:45 p.m.
