The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Bill Frame 1, Mother Nature 0
By Than Acuff
Not even Mother Nature could put an end to the Crested Butte town league season as WEHA director and town league commissioner Bill Frame shifted venues from Big Mine Ice, er Slush, Arena to Jorgensen Ice Arena for the playoffs. REG took the opportunity to close out what has been a prolific season with a 2-1 win over GB&T in the C/B town league finals Thursday, March 19 for their second league title in a row.
REG, fueled by a core group of five women, finished off the regular season in first place with just one loss all season while GB&T finished in the middle of the standings dropping their last two games. But playoffs are an entirely different deal and GB&T rallied past Ska Brewing and Altitude Painting to make it to the final while REG survived a scare from Altitude Painting in the first round and then cruised to a 4-1 over CB Electric to make it to the big game.
REG forward Sophie Klein set the tone early chasing pucks deep into the offensive zone and creating opportunities for herself and her teammates. Her effort then opened a door for CJ Hoover to skate to net for an open look, but GB&T goalie Lucas Mcmullan made his first of many saves in the game.
Bill Frame put the paperwork and emails aside to suit up for his team GB&T and uncharacteristically skated in off the blue line and to goal to fire a shot, but REG goalie Kurt Peterson made the initial save and stopped the ensuing rebound as well.
GB&T’s composure and positional play proved fortuitous in holding off additional attacks by REG through the opening five minutes of the game and allowed them to settle into their game setting up in REG ‘s defensive zone. Their work provided a couple of shots including a loose puck in front as Scott Reamer battled with three REG players in the slot to get additional chances on net, but Peterson gave no-quarter in his shot-stopping abilities.
REG’s speed provided a 2v0 chance later in the period but Mcmullan came up with another save however the constant pressure by REG would eventually wear down the GB&T defenses in the closing minutes of the first period. Robin Gross fired a shot from the point through traffic and while Mcmullan made the save, REG won the ensuing faceoff, and Gross would set up Hoover for the goal and a 1-0 lead.
The effort of Thomas McLean and Reamer brought GB&T’s play up another notch in the second period with Prawit Durgan, Drew Holbrook and Adam Chater helping out on attack and Jeff Duke clamping down on defense creating additional scoring chances in the second period only to have Peterson turn them away.
Their efforts did eventually pan out in the eighth minute of the second period when McLean fired from the point through traffic to score and GB&T kept pushing and defending to hold the 1-1 tie going into the third period.
GB&T stepped on the gas even harder in the third period looking to pull off the upset and when Molly Frame skated out to block a REG shot from the point, it looked like GB&T might pull it off.
The downside though was the constant pressure without goal production eventually opened up GB&T to a counterattack as Bobby Crimi skated free up ice to net in the final 90 seconds of the game. Despite the questionable efforts of a recovering GB&T player to disrupt Crimi’s attack, a goal was awarded to REG, and the 2-1 lead would hold until the final horn for a well-deserved REG title.
