Huskies hockey trucks Aspen, 7-1
Look at the shots on goal in the second period
Wrong place, wrong time, dude.
After suffering their first loss of the season on Friday night to Steamboat Springs, 4-2, Battle Mountain opened up a can of-whup-you-know-what on Aspen, 7-1, Saturday night in Pitkin County.
Tied 1-1 after one period, the Huskies outscored Apen 5-0 in the middle stanza and outshot the Skiers, 30-4. We’re thinking Battle Mountain goalie Logan Gremmer set up a lawn chair in his crease to enjoy the show.
Jack Eastabrooks got it going on helpers from Carter Large and Dillon Flaagan on a power play. This was a lovely contrast for the Huskies who paraded to the sin bin vs. Steamboat Springs. In fact, Battle Mountain had just one 2-minute minor all night against the Skiers which is downright Lady Byng-like for an Aspen game.
Battle Mountain blew it open with five in the second, leaving the only critical decision of the evening to “Where we going for dinner after this?” Carter Large, Wyatt Horn, Tyler Knox, Jensen Rawlings and Jaden Weiss all lit the lamp during the first 10 minutes of the second period.
Support Local Journalism
Presumably, Battle Mountain stopped scoring in the second period because it got tired of exchanging high-fives. Rawlings added his second in the third period.
Playoff picture
While the Huskies host Aspen — again — on Friday, Saturday’s tilt was the league game. (Once more, we don’t know why CHSAA decided that the first meeting between teams playing as many as three times this winter is the league game, but go with it.) Battle Mountain moved to 3-0-1 in the Mountain Conference and 6-1-1 overall.
The 4A state tournament will be composed of the three conference champions — Mountain, North and South — and one wild card with the highest rating-percentage index. Since the Huskies are No. 6 in RPI, winning the Mountain looks like a good idea.
Yes, the RPI looks strange with 2-1 Woodland Park ranked ahead of 6-1-1 Battle Mountain, but that’s the norm. Were the Huskies to beat No. 3 Crested Butte on March 5 in Gunnison in the final league game of the season, they win the Mountain and the RPI can take a flying leap.
Saints return with win
Vail Christian boys basketball (3-3) returned to action after a COVID-19-related break with 64-50 win at Rangely last weekend. The 2A Saints also fell to 3A Lake County, 45-35.
Against the Panthers — er, the Rangely ones — Vinny Nowicki had 13 points, while Jeffrey Hall had 12 and Leo Rothenberg finished with 11.
Vail Christian’s ladies moved to 3-2 with a victory over Lake County Saturday. Grace McCurdy led the Saints with 21 points.
