Crested Butte Wolfpack builds on early season showdowns

“The young guys are such a nice surprise”

It’s the same old story every year. The Crested Butte Wolfpack high school hockey team does what it can to get ice time in preparation for the upcoming season. Meanwhile, they hold on as best they can during early season match-ups and delay as long as possible the onset of league play.
This year, coach John Mortell has ramped up the level of early season competition. After matching up well against the Colorado Junior Eagles at a tournament in Craig two weeks ago, Mortell lined up three more non-league games against the Front Range program.
“When we met them in Craig I thought, what better practice than to play a powerful team more,” says Mortell. “They’re a ‘real deal’ program for sure.”
Two practices and one game later, the Wolfpack headed to Ft. Collins to face the Junior Eagles for three straight games. This time around the Wolfpack wasn’t nearly as successful as their first two games against the Front Range club team. Nonetheless, they did hold their own and Mortell feels, despite the final scores, his team continues to progress.
The Wolfpack had their chances early in the first game as the Junior Eagles racked up numerous penalties in the first period. Unfortunately, the Wolfpack failed to find the back of the net on a series of powerplay opportunities.
“We had a great powerplay going and the movement was great,” says Mortell. “The puck just didn’t go in the net for us.”
Eventually the Junior Eagles made the Wolfpack pay for their shortcomings. After killing off three penalties in a row, the Junior Eagles scored twice to take a 2-0 lead by the end of the first period.
They added a third late in the second period but the Wolfpack responded by scoring two goals in under two minutes. The first came from Gus Hensley scoring a short-handed goal off an assist from Gage Meredith and Sam Reaman netted the second to pull the Wolfpack back within one.
Just as things were looking up, the Junior Eagles proceeded to rattle off three more goals to seal the Wolfpack’s demise 6-2.
“We were controlling the tempo and the physical play—the puck just wasn’t bouncing our way,” says Mortell.
The Wolfpack had their second shot at the Junior Eagles later that day but were playing without Isaac Evans and Josh Melnick, integral parts of the Wolfpack scheme.
The Junior Eagles took the initial lead once again scoring in the 10th minute of the first but Ian Dethloff evened the score 20 seconds later to tie the game up 1-1 heading into the second period.
Late in the third period, the Junior Eagles were sitting on a 3-1 lead but a penalty opened the door for the Wolfpack. They seized the opportunity this time as Dakota Wiggins scored on the powerplay off an assist from Dethloff but the Junior Eagles shut the door soon after, scoring a minute later to seal the 4-2 win.
“We were making progress and our defense was awesome,” says Mortell. “The kids were frustrated but overall morale was good and everyone was proud of their efforts.”
The two teams met one last time the following day and the Wolfpack dictated the tempo and the physical play again and took the first lead of the game late in the first period when Reaman scored a powerplay goal off an assist from Evans.
Cameron Curtiss was having an outstanding game in net and the Wolfpack defense held tight to keep the 1-0 lead until the end of the third period.
Up 1-0, a penalty forced Crested Butte to play a man short for four minutes straight. They held on as best they could but eventually gave up the game-tying goal, finishing the game with a 1-1 tie.
Nevertheless, Mortell was impressed with his team’s effort over the weekend, especially the new players.
“The young guys are such a nice surprise,” says Mortell. “It typically takes new players a while to get into the groove but they just jumped right in.”
The Wolfpack now have the benefit of Big Mine Ice Arena open and a regular schedule of workouts over the holidays.
They will open league play after the first of the year.