Mountain Vista nips Huskies hockey, 1-0

VAIL — After a tough loss, it’s always important to remember that a season is a marathon.

Or, perhaps, in Battle Mountain hockey’s case, it’s a marathon-like sprint.

Playing the second of a stretch of 11 games in the final three weeks of the regular season, the Huskies dropped a 1-0 decision to Mountain Vista on Friday night at Dobson Arena.

“I thought we played pretty well overall,” Huskies coach Derek Byron said. “It was a battle throughout the entire game. We missed on a few passes for sure, but we’re playing a lot of hockey in the next three weeks. This is going to happen. That’s a good team we just played.”

Mountain Vista (7-9) was solid, but the Huskies just couldn’t get the puck in the net on Friday. On the positive side of the ledger, Battle Mountain (4-3-2, please note the difference in games played), Friday was a nonconference tilt.

If you’re reading this in newsprint, the Huskies are already on their way to Gunnison — the bus left at 6 a.m. — to face Crested Butte, beginning a stretch of crucial Peak Conference games. After Crested Butte, the Huskies host Steamboat Springs on Wednesday at the Eagle Pool & Ice Rink and then Aspen on Friday at Dobson.

Friday night’s star for Battle Mountain hockey was freshman goalie Logan Gremmer, who stopped 23 of 24 shots, including a sprawling save late, when the Huskies’ bench was trying to pull him off the ice for an extra attacker.

“He’s played solid for us. I don’t even think about it,” Byron said of his keeper being a freshman. “He’s just another hockey player. Good goalie.”