The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“When it comes down to it, good teams find a way to win”
[ by Than Acuff ]
The Crested Butte Titans battled back and forth against the Kent Denver Sun Devils before pulling away for the 7-4 win on Friday, December 16. The Titans then boarded a bus the next day to skate to a 0-0 tie with the defending state champions, Cheyenne Mountain.
Kent Denver was slated to be the first true test of the Titans this year as both teams had seen success against common opponents through the first two weeks of play. And the game did not disappoint as it had it all, blood, stitches, dislocated shoulders, lead changes, powerplay goals as well as a penalty shot and a short-handed goal down the stretch to seal the win.
Kent Denver had the Titans scrambling to keep up in the first period but Titans netminder Jack Perkins came up big with some saves early on to help stave off the Sun Devil attack. The Titans then caught the Sun Devils out of position as Grady Buckhanan broke free to score in the third minute of the game off an assist from Dominick Cerio.
The Sun Devils speed continued to overwhelm the Titans but a penalty midway through the first gave Crested Butte a chance to add to their lead and they did as Buckhanan laid out at the blue line to keep the puck in play and pushed the puck to Rocky Marchitelli for the Titans second goal of the game.
Kent Denver’s fervent puck pressure eventually paid off as they responded two minutes later to score, and the Titans headed into the break between periods with a tenuous 2-1 lead. When they headed into the locker room, Watson shared some insights while Brendan Hartigan’s chin got stitched up and Colm Piccaro continued to recover from his shoulder getting popped out of place and then back into the socket.
“I felt like we came out a little slow, I know what the kids are capable of and I wasn’t seeing it,” says coach Billy Watson. “We were chasing around on defense and we needed to fine tune a few things.”
With their adjustments in place and a new spring in their step, the Titans matched Kent Denver’s effort to open the second period to tack on a third goal when Sam Dukeman took a pass from Piccaro to find a seam and score for a 3-1 lead.
Momentum then soon shifted in Kent Denver’s favor when they scored on a powerplay in the 10th minute of the second period. Three minutes later the Sun Devils tied the game 3-3 and then struck one last time in the final minutes of the period to take a 4-3 lead by the end of the second period.
“I thought we did a good job with our adjustments but when they scored that powerplay goal, they were fired up,” says Watson. “The kids were frustrated with some things as well and they lost track of their responsibilities.”
The silver lining was the Titans would open the third period on the powerplay and Watson impressed upon the team the importance of the opening minutes of the third period.
“We needed to get it done right away in the powerplay and hop out on them hard,” says Watson.
The Titans heeded Watson’s words scoring on the opening powerplay as Grady Dietrich took a pass from Hartigan across the top and fired his shot through traffic to tie the game back up 4-4.
Four minutes later the Titans powerplay came through again as Piccaro tipped a shot by Dietrich to put Crested Butte back in the lead. Kent Denver continued to push back though and were on the cusp of tying it up, but Perkins came through again with a flurry of saves. Then the Titans were hit with a major blow, a four-minute non-releasable penalty with just over four minutes left in the game.
Once again, Crested Butte’s special teams came through as Dietrich picked off a pass in neutral ice and headed straight to net for a short-handed goal. A Kent Denver player tripped him to break up the attack, but the officials made the call leaving Watson with a choice of either going four versus four or taking the penalty shot and Watson opted for the penalty shot.
“Grady’s been a good shootout guy for us in practices and we were confident he could get the job done,” says Watson.
Dietrich came through to beat the Sun Devil goalie in the penalty shot and the Titans were now up 6-4, still in the penalty kill, with over two minutes left in the game.
The Sun Devils pulled their goalie for the final two minutes and Buckhanan sealed the deal as he got loose and fired the puck at the open net. His initial shot hit off the post, but Buckhanan followed to punch it home for the 7-4 Titans win. Perkins finished the game with 31 saves.
“That was an exciting one,” says Watson. “It was the first time we’d really been challenged. When it comes down to it, good teams find a way to win.”
The Titans then went from the frying pan and into the fire the next day as they hit the road to face Cheyenne Mountain, one of the most successful hockey programs in the state. Crested Butte was missing starting defenseman Piccaro to injury and wrecked emotionally from the Kent Denver game and it showed in the first period, but Crested Butte held on to keep it scoreless.
“We came out slow and it could have been 4-0 but Jack played all-American doing anything to keep the puck out of the net,” says Watson.
The Titans soon got their feet underneath them and started to match play with Cheyenne Mountain as Marshall Spann stepped in for Piccaro on defense and the third line grind did what they were asked to do all game long.
“Marshall played incredible,” says Watson.
Once again, though, the Titans were hit with a major penalty down the stretch giving Cheyenne Mountain a chance to edge out the win on the powerplay at the end of the third period.
But the Titans refused to fold killing off the penalty, including a helmet cracking shot block by Dukeman, at the end of the game and into overtime and once they were all-even, turned the game in their favor but couldn’t crack the seal on Cheyenne’s net leaving the teams with a 0-0 tie.
“That was the best team we’d seen all season by far,” says Watson. “We asked the team to do whatever they could, and they did. We were a whole different team in the third period and overtime and we had our chances, but their goalie played well too. We saw what we’re capable of.”
The Titans have one more game before they head into the Holiday break as well as the annual alumni game on Thursday, December 29 at 7 p.m. They return to action at home when they host Battle Mountain on Friday, January 6.
