The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Low numbers, cold goalie spell demise for Gunnison
by Than Acuff
The Monarch Cup series was intended to bring local hockey to a new level, an opportunity for the strongest skaters in the valley to find a competitive outlet and a chance for fledgling local players to move up through the ranks.
In addition, the hope was that the Monarch Cup would generate a “friendly” rivalry between the north and south ends of the valley and bring hockey fans out of the woodwork, or woods, to witness some high level hockey.
Game one of the series last month did just that as the two teams squared off before a good-sized crowd, giving them a show as Crested Butte rallied back from a 6-3 deficit to win 7-6.
The second showdown of the Monarch Cup on Saturday, November 19 was significantly more subdued, as about six fans showed up to watch a depleted Gunnison team fall to Crested Butte 8-5.
As game time approached, Gunnison had a total of seven skaters and no goalie, while Crested Butte had nine with Devon Carillo in net. The calls went out and a goalie was eventually found and forced to stand between the pipes for Gunnison with zero warm-up.
A lack of players and a lack of warm-up played out immediately in the first period, as Crested Butte jumped out to a 4-0 lead. Gunnison was pushing hard early but Crested Butte’s poise in the offensive zone made the difference as Joe Erickson circled through the high slot to receive a pass and scored two minutes into the game. Crested Butte struck again a minute later as John Fritz carried the puck up-ice for a two-on-one and slipped a wrist shot past the Gunnison net minder for a 2-0 lead.
Gunnison remained focused on the daunting task at hand and continued to press Crested Butte high up the ice, forcing Crested Butte to give up the puck at inopportune times but Gunnison struggled to turn turnovers into goals.
The effort did open Gunnison up to counterattacks though, and Crested Butte made them pay in the ninth minute of the first when Mike Eaton broke free in neutral ice and pushed the puck wide to Mike Lauerman. Lauerman settled the pass, took one look and then blasted a slap shot from just inside the blue line off the far post and in.
Two minutes later Gunnison was hit with a penalty and Crested Butte closed out the period with a powerplay goal as Brian Murphy slid in off the point to take a pass in the high slot and push it near post for a 4-0 Crested Butte lead heading into the second period.
That left both fans and players wondering not if it was going to be a blow-out but, rather, how bad of a blow-out.
Miraculously, neither happened as the Gunnison goalie fond his groove to turn away several shots early in the second period. Mike O’Laughlin did break free to put Crested Butte up 5-0 but Gunnison finally responded as Steve Kay made the most of a broken play to finally put Gunnison on the scoreboard.
O’Laughlin struck again a minute later battling through three players to find a seam to goal for a 6-1 lead heading into the third period but Gunnison charged back to make the game interesting.
Gunnison scored three goals in six minutes to open the third period and close the gap down to two goals. Jake Johnstone, former player for both Michigan Tech and the Huntsville Havoc (a Southern Professional Hockey League team out of Huntsville, Alabama—gotta love the internet), netted two of the goals and it looked like we might have another classic Monarch Cup comeback.
But, enough was enough for Crested Butte as they proceeded to rattle off two goals in 13 seconds. The first came from Murphy and then Lauerman took a pass off of the ensuing face-off to blast another slapshot and rebuild an 8-4 Crested Butte lead.
Gunnison pulled its goalie with more than a minute left in the game and it paid off as Kay scored his second goal of the game, but the damage was done as Crested Butte cruised to the 8-5 win.
The two teams will meet again in December, eventually heading north for games once the rink in Crested Butte is up and running.
