The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Head into state tournament 13th seed
by Than Acuff
Overcoming injuries and adversity, the Crested Butte Titans hockey team took down Battle Mountain Friday 4-3 to win the Peak Conference title. They followed that up cruising to a 7-0 win over Palmer on Saturday, February 16 to finish the season with a record of 13-5-1 and enter the state tournament the 13th seed.
Battle Mountain would be just that, a battle, as the Titans lost two key defensemen to injury the week prior, forcing coach Billy Watson to make some adjustments in his lines. To accommodate the vacant spots, Watson pulled a player back to defense and pulled another player up from the JV squad.
“We had to switch a few things around and it seemed to work out all right,” says Watson.
After another safe trip on the school bus with captain Bill Kastning at the wheel dodging road closures and delays from avalanches, the Titans took the ice Friday, February 15 with a title on the line.
Having played, and beaten, Battle Mountain earlier this season, Watson had an idea of what to expect and prepared accordingly.
“They’re pretty similar to Aspen in terms of depth,” says Watson. “They do have one player that we had to lock up and keep him away from the net.”
The Titans came out in the first period setting the tone with puck possession and quality shooting and while their shots were limited to just four total, they scored on two of them. Dom Piccaro opened the scoring in the 12th minute off an assist from Kaden Hardesty. Less than a minute later Graham Barrett scored with Slater Weil and Jakub Kozanyi providing the assists and the Titans were on top 2-0 heading into the second period.
“The first period went really well for us,” says Watson. “Our puck possession was pretty good and the quality of our shots was the key.”
Battle Mountain climbed back into the game in the second period, scoring in the fourth and 10th minute of the second period to tie it up 2-2 but Crested Butte responded late in the second period as Joseph Stock scored off an assist from Piccaro to go back on top 3-2 with one period left to play.
“We let them back into the game,” says Watson. “Those two goals gave them more life than they deserved.”
Things then got about as tense as they possibly could in the third period with a conference title on the line. Battle Mountain tied the game back up 14 minutes into the third period but Crested Butte struck back a minute later as Barrett netted his second goal of the game for a 4-3 lead with six minutes left to play.
Less than a minute after that, Crested Butte was hit with a five minute major penalty, which meant, no matter if Battle Mountain scored, the Titans would still have to play a man down. Then, they were hit with another penalty for too many men on the ice and were down two men for two minutes with a one-goal lead.
Despite playing short-handed for five of the final six minutes of the game, the Titans held Battle Mountain off to seal the 4-3 win and the Peak Conference title. Goalie Shaughn Rourke finished the game with 21 saves on the night.
“We did a great job killing off those penalties,” says Watson. “Dom and Graham switched off in the 5v3 up top and then seniors Joe Coburn and Sam Stepanek came on to kill off the 5v4 and were just animals out there. We played the penalty kill really well.”
With conference title in hand, the Titans returned home to play their final game of the regular season as they hosted the Palmer Terrors on Saturday, February 16 and skated to a 7-0 win. Barrett, Stepanek and Hardesty each scored two goals with Braydon Duncan tacking on a solo strike. Liam Reily wrapped up his high school goalie career with a shutout.
“That game we really emphasized just having fun and to enjoy it,” says Watson. “We gave some kids some time in the game, which was good for their confidence and for getting ready for the playoffs.”
With a conference title now secured, the Titans now look to make some noise in the state tournament starting this week.
“It feels good. The kids have been working hard all season and the hard work paid off,” says Watson. “If each and everyone can play their best, we should have a pretty good playoffs but we have to take it one game at a time—just get one more rung up the ladder.”
