Battle Mountain falls to Liberty 7-4 in first round of 5A state hockey playoffs

Liberty got its revenge.

After losing to Battle Mountain 4-2 on Feb. 17, the No. 9-seeded Lancers came back to town — albeit in front of a packed crowd at Eagle Ice Rink instead of the usual Dobson Ice Arena arrangement — and took down the No. 8-seeded Huskies 7-4 Thursday in the first round of the 5A state hockey playoffs.

Battle Mountain, which came into the game having won three of its last four, got on the board first when senior Scott Suhadolink knocked home an unassisted power play goal with 13:04 remaining in the first period. Liberty senior captain Tristen Brooks responded less than four minutes later with an unassisted goal of his own to knot things up.

The 1-1 tie persisted until the final second of the period — literally — when the brothers Bolte capitalized. Krae found his brother Wayne for a slapshot from just outside the face-off circle for the Lancers first lead as the buzzer sounded.

The Lancers kept their momentum rolling right into the second period, jumping on the Huskies 19 seconds in with a goal from Ethan Graber. The two-goal deficit didn’t deflate the home team entirely, but Krae Bolte’s score with 4:04 remaining gave the visitors a commanding 4-1 advantage.

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Liberty would score again with 12:56 remaining in the third, but Battle Mountain came back with some juice after a goal by Kirchner Slaugh off an assist from Ollie Grems exactly 1:05 later. With Liberty short-handed by two players shortly after, the Huskies turned up the aggressiveness, with Ethan Fronteras and Nate Bishop getting several good looks. Goalie Logan Gabrielson snatched one of Bishop’s shots out of the air, and ultimately, the Lancers were able to kill three straight penalties.

With 6:25 to go, they came back on the offensive. Brooks got loose on a breakaway, deked left and backhanded his second goal past Borski. With under 1:20 remaining, he completed the hat trick.

In the final minute, however, the Huskies got hot. With 54.5 seconds to go, Grems found Keegan Collins and 10 seconds later, Suhadolink found the back of the net to send frenzied Husky fans home feeling good despite the season-ending loss.

Battle Mountain ended its 2023 campaign with a 7-11-2 overall record. Liberty will go on to face No. 1 Glenwood on Feb. 28 in the state quarterfinals.