Talk of the Town skates past Ska Brewing in Town League

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By Than Acuff 

The Crested Butte C/B town league hockey game Sunday night between the Talk of the Town and Ska Brewing was a step back in time. First and foremost, it was a great day of skiing. Secondly, it was blustery and the snow was swirling under the roof and onto the ice reminding those of us in the scorer’s booth of the days when there was no roof, no glass on the boards, the penalty box was an area shoveled out of the snowbank and shoveling the ice between periods was commonplace. Remarkably, I can only recall one fan getting hit with an errant puck too.

As far as the hockey, that too was a step back in time as rather than a game dominated by one or two players, everyone was involved in the play at all times and rarely was there a time when someone skated coast-to-coast to score, not that it didn’t happen.

The Talk threatened first one minute into the game when Michael Blunck skated to goal to fire a shot only to have James Brennan turn it away. The Talk continued to press into Ska’s zone but with Ska packed in and Brennan making saves nothing got through.

Ska did find some space up ice as the period continued as Ska stepped up the pace eventually leading to the first goal of the night when a rebound attempt by Mike Wright was denied by Talk goalie Nicholas Mikeska, but Kevin Van Horn crashed the net to stuff in the second rebound.

The Talk continued to outshoot Ska though and finally broke the seal on the Ska net seven minutes into the first period when James Hensley won a faceoff in Ska’s zone dropping the puck to Blunck at the point. Blunck took one look, saw a seam and fired his shot through traffic and past Brennan to tie the game 1-1.

The Talk continued to press through the waning minutes of the opening period and struck a second time as Patrick Walsh found open ice from coast-to-coast to skate onto goal and score for a 2-1 Talk lead by the end of the first period.

Both Talk goalie Mikeska and Ska netminder Brennan came up big throughout most of the second period but one save in particular stole the show, which stole a goal from Scott Reamer. Reamer had an open look on net in close and when Mikeska dove across the face of the net to shut him down, Reamer lifted the puck only to have Mikeska lift his stick mid-dive and deflect the shot over the goal. 

The effort of Ska would ultimately pay off eight minutes into the period when Chris Zachar carried the puck up the wing and fed Van Horn in slot for his second goal of the night tying the game back up 2-2 heading into the third period.

The Talk took over in the first two minutes of the third period though to build a quick lead as Quinn Nicolich found Hensley open in the slot with a pass and Hensley pushed it past Brennan for a 3-2 lead. Forty seconds later the Talk struck again when Ben Henson scored off an assist from Hensley and the Talk held their two-goal advantage through the reminder of the third period for a 4-2 win.