The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“It wasn’t the team that I know”
The Aspen girls U-19 hockey team has been running roughshod over the Mountain States Girls Hockey League (MSGHL) and came into Gunnison last weekend with a perfect 10-0 record.
The Aspen girls have the top three scorers in the league and were averaging close to six goals per game.
Then again, Aspen had 10 games under their belt while Gunnison had only two, so it really came down to who showed up for the games last weekend.
Unfortunately, Aspen did for both games, rattling off two wins over the Gunnison Blades U-19 girls.
“We match up with them well,” says coach Tony Lambert. “We just had lots of mental breakdowns. We definitely got outplayed.”
The Blades rattled off a couple of early chances including a shot by Marisa Danos, but Aspen struck first four minutes into the game, scoring off a rebound for a 1-0 lead.
The Blades came out stronger in the second period with Ali McGuire making a couple of rushes on net but rebounds were left unattended and Aspen held their slim advantage as the Blades wore down.
Aspen built on their lead with three minutes left in the second period to take a 2-0 lead into the third period.
The Blades spent six minutes of the final period in penalty kill situations and while they held their own, the Blades struggled to put anything together on offense, eventually falling 2-0.
The Blades put up a stronger effort on in the second game of the weekend on Sunday, December 2.
Aspen took a 1-0 lead midway through the first period but the Blades responded a minute later when Marissa Lambert scored off an assist from Hailey Pike.
Aspen came right back to score a minute after that, building a 2-1 lead that would hold up through the next two periods.
“It wasn’t the team I know,” says Lambert. “Talent-wise we kill them, it just didn’t show on the scoreboard. That was their 12th game and our fourth game of the season. We’ll see them again.”
The Blades head to Ft. Collins this weekend for two more league games.
“We’re just looking to get back on track,” says Lambert.
