Wolfpack hockey opens season with tournament win

“It was more than I could have hoped for.”

Forget about ice time, just get the Wolfpack games. Despite limited ice time to practice, the Crested Butte Wolfpack rattled off three wins last weekend, winning a preseason tournament in Craig.
Coach John Mortell has 18 players on his bench this year, including two goalies, which is somewhat unprecedented for a Crested Butte hockey team with talent from all classes. Five seniors lead the team with an incredibly strong junior class, all of which just got an influx of quality talent from the sophomore and freshmen classes.
“It’s a good number and having two goalies is incredible,” says Mortell.
That experience allowed Mortell to tweak his early season workouts accordingly to prepare for the tournament. Typically, Mortell spends the first series of workouts on fundamentals and brining his new players up to speed on his style of play. But with a preseason tournament on the near horizon and quality numbers and players on the roster, Mortell opted to make the most of the handful of practices available.
“We just jumped right into it, knowing we had a tournament coming up,” says Mortell.
With two of the four teams at the tournament select programs, Mortell just wanted to prepare his team as well as possible to compete.
“I wanted to see good teamwork and to be able to compete,” explains Mortell. “I just didn’t want to get blown out and we did way more than that.”
The Wolfpack opened the tournament Saturday morning against the Ft. Collins Junior Eagles, a premier Midget A development program.
After falling behind 2-0, the Wolfpack came firing back to edge out a 3-2 win. Senior Montana Wiggins had a stellar game in net and senior Ian Dethloff and juniors Josh Melnick and Emerson Wohlers provided the goals for the win.
“Our kids came out and dominated physically and Montana was playing like it was the middle of the season,” says Mortell. “It was such a great start that I was like whatever else happens that weekend, I was going to be happy.”
The Wolfpack stayed on the throttle for their second game of the day, lining up against the Junior Golden Eagles, another select team from Salt Lake City, Utah.
Again, select junior teams connote a high level of play, especially with year-round ice available. Yet, despite pre-game concerns, the Wolfpack rose to the challenge once again.
Freshman goaltender Cameron Curtiss had the game of his career, facing more than 40 shots through three periods of play and the Wolfpack skated away with another 3-2 win.
Senior Liam Mortell and Wohlers anchored the Wolfpack defense with sophomore Ashton Mabry getting key shifts as well.
The two teams were deadlocked in a 2-2 tie with junior Sam Reaman netting the Wolfpack goals and the two teams were battling back and forth before the Wolfpack’s third line came through. Freshman Gage Meredith found the puck behind the net and slipped it in front to sophomore Axel Deer for the game winner.
“Our defense was solid, as good as they could be,” says Mortell. “And Cameron, as the saying goes, stood on his head in net.”
The Wolfpack got a break from the pressure Sunday morning as they cruised to an 8-1 win over Craig. Everyone was in on the scoring as the first two lines eased up on the shots and Mortell had his team use the opportunity to focus on passing and team play.
“I was impressed by our team’s sportsmanship and passing,” says Mortell.
With three wins under their belt, the Wolfpack lined up in the tournament finals for a rematch with the Ft. Collins Junior Eagles. This time, the Ft. Collins goaltender proved the difference in the game as Ft. Collins edged out a 2-1 win as Reaman scored the Wolfpack’s lone goal.
“It was one of the best hockey games I’ve seen the Wolfpack play,” says Mortell. “Their goalie just shut us down.”
Despite dropping the final game, the Wolfpack still took the tournament title based on goal differential.
“It was more than I could have hoped for,” says Mortell. “Their all-around teamwork and their chemistry was right on. It was like they’ve been playing hockey together all summer.”
The biggest surprise for Mortell came from his younger players such as sophomore Gus Hensley. By the end of the weekend, Hensley had worked his way up to the first line with Dethloff and Reaman.
“The younger guys were the biggest surprise of the whole weekend,” says Mortell.
The Wolfpack have the next couple of weeks to scrape together ice time in Gunnison before they head to the Front Range at the end of the month for three more games against the Ft. Collins Junior Eagles.
“We’re trying to get in as much quality hockey before league starts and Ft. Collins is as good as any team we’ll see in league,” says Mortell.
The Wolfpack will open league play in the beginning of January.