The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“FACT, I bleed orange”
The 2013 season has been officially christened. No, I’m not talking about James Brennan spilling PBR on the rink. I’m talking blood. It’s not real hockey until a little blood is spilled and Thursday night saw back-to-back games of blood-spilling action.
I never got who was the first person to “bless” the season in the first game but I do know Eldo skater Milosadik Wishecudski donated some blood in the second game during the Eldo’s 7-4 win over the Bacchanale when a puck shot up off a stick to split Wishecudski’s eye open late in the second period.
The Bacchanale is having a tough run this year, five weeks into the season and still searching for their first win. The team has been solid in past years and has a solid foundation of talent this season with former Wolfpack all-stars Jeff Snyder and Nathan Lacy, Dan Downing, Crested Butte South beer league veteran Dan Marshall and fundamental defenseman Jeff Duke.
They’ve also got Shawn Harrington in net, who has years of town league experience. But, if you can’t clear the puck out of your zone, you’re going to get stung.
The Eldo, on the other end of the spectrum, has built their success on the backs of committed and quality mid-range players mixed in with the talents of Guy Ciulla and Howard Tuthill. The final key ingredient for the Eldo comes from their women, with Red Ladies Gesa Michel and Niki O’Connor.
The game opened with the two teams trading goals in the first five minutes. Eldo off-season acquisition Steve Banks broke the seal in the third minute of play but the Bacchanale fired back two minutes later when Duke took a pass from Lacy at the point and cracked a low slap shot through traffic for the first of two short-handed goals by the Bacchanale.
Harrington came up with a couple of big saves to hold off the relentless Eldo attack but the floodgates opened up late in the first period and remained open in the second.
Tuthill fed John Hickey in the slot for a 2-1 Eldo lead. Tuthill and Ciulla then closed the period, scoring one goal each in a 10-second span and the Eldo was up 4-1 heading into the second period.
The Eldo continued to pound away at the Bacchanale, scoring two more goals in the first three minutes of the second period.
Wishecudski took a pass up the boards from Chris Thompson and scored. One minute later, Wishecudski did it again off an assist from Banks and it looked like the Eldo was well on its way to a sound thumping of the Bacchanale, like a double-digits thumping, up 6-1 with plenty of hockey left.
But, the Bacchanale refused to go away and actually thrived in the face of adversity. Down 6-1 and in the midst of a punishing penalty kill, Snyder caught the Eldo defense sleeping and broke free to score on a one-on-one.
Furthermore, Harrington, who had already been lit up for six goals, caught fire as the game progressed, turning away numerous opportunities.
The Eldo poked one more by at the end of the second period when Harrington denied Wishecudski but Hickey followed to score on the rebound.
The Bacchanale continued to skate hard in the third period and held the Eldo scoreless while scoring two goals. Lacy’s backhand attempt was denied but GJ Santelli scored on the rebound. Josh Schumacher then gave the Bacchanale one last thing to cheer about in the final seconds. Schumacher’s talents on the ball field do not necessarily translate to the ice. After spending a majority of the game spinning like a top while trying to keep his balance in neutral ice, Schumacher closed the game winning a puck on the boards, spinning and shooting through traffic to score as the final horn sounded, turning what could have been a embarrassing line score in the standings into a somewhat respectable 7-4 loss.
