|
Hockey's
Frozen Four: Ralston Valley shuts out the champs. Lewis-Palmer rallies for
win in OT. (02/26/10)
by MARTY CESARIO
Same four as the season before but with a pairing shuffle and a
different venue. High School hockey's Frozen Four moved to the 1st
Bank Center in Broomfield this season and while all four clubs were repeat
entries, this time the semifinals would call for the two Denver Metro
teams to do battle and the pair from El Paso County to play each
other. Game one remained scoreless for 35 minutes until the 4
seed, Ralston Valley, scored three times in the final period to knock
off the top seed and two-time defending champion, Regis. And #6
Lewis-Palmer persisted through an early two goal deficit in the nightcap
to beat 11th-seeded, Cheyenne Mountain, with a 3-2 overtime victory.
It'll be the Mustangs and Rangers in the Saturday showdown for the
state championship!
Coach Jon McKibbon and his
Ralston Valley club had to be enjoying the scenario for the opening
semifinal. The Mustangs spent the first two rounds travelling
to Eagle County in bad weather. Tonight, they took a short drive
East from Arvada. And they were getting a rematch with the
champs-- who dealt them a tough last-minute loss
in a
penalty-fest just two weeks ago.
To their credit, both clubs
seemed careful not to end up in the box as much as in that
previous meeting. I'm not saying they were soft-- just more
disciplined in defending the puck and delivering the
checks. Highlighted by some hustle on the dump-and-chase by
Nathan Haas and stiff occupation at the crease by
Mike Pasquarella, Regis outshot and earned most of
their scoring chances in the first period, but they
couldn't capitalize. Ralston Valley goalie, Cody Buesser,
stopped all the shots. Defenseman Vincent Ditirro and the
Mustangs' kill unit easily smothered the only power
play.
The hits were delivered more aggressively and
the relationship was rekindled in the second period. Classic
third-line pest, Chris Lupinski, earned
an unofficial star from me as he harassed more than one Raider
out his assignment without ever getting whistled. One of
Lupinski's teammates, though, got put in the box for frosting the face of
the goalie after play stopped. Regis wasn't angelic,
either, as they got nabbed once for roughing and
another time for hooking. What that all meant was power-play
opportunities. What happened? Nothing really. Until the final
period.
At 5:19 in the third, fans decked in Mustang blue
went nuts when Mitch Pijanowski drove deep behind
net then flipped a perfect pass to Dillon Taylor
crashing in from the blue line. Taylor's goal not only gave Ralston
Valley the lead but opened up an onslaught that Regis was
neither expecting nor able to counter. Less than a minute after that
go-ahead score, the Mustangs were awarded a power play. Regis killed
it, but Ralston clearly had the momentum tilting in their favor. At
9:23, forward Kyle Bennett
jumped out of the penalty
box, cherry-picked a cross-the-ice pass, then whipped a wrist shot
into the net for a 2-0 advantage. Less than five minutes later, Bennett
topped off his club's third period surge with an unassisted, empty-netter
with 11 seconds remaining. Final: 3-0! The "Beezer" shut out the
defending champs! And now Coach "Kibby" and his crew will play for
the title!
Ralston
Valley (18-3-1) 0 0 3
3
Regis (18-4)
0 0 0 0
RVM: Dillon Taylor (5:19, P3 -
Mitch Pijanowski, Darek Scott), Kyle Bennett (9:23, P3 -- Ben Tucker,
Vincent Ditirro), Kyle Bennett (14:49, P3 -- unassisted, empty
net)
The second semifinal featured two clubs with
lower seeds but certainly a whole bunch of reasons for being there.
Lewis-Palmer has the best goaltender in the state, fast skaters with nice
skills, a destiny purpose to honor a fallen teammate, and
the best overall record of all Peak Conference clubs. Their
opponents -- a group of grinders with a pedigree coach in
Mike Provenzano in a program that has
captured fourteen state titles.
With their
dump-chase-sling-and-swarm style, the Indians ambushed the Rangers to take
a two goal lead that may have seemed shocking to many at the rink.
Nick Vail scored about two minutes into the game to give
Cheyenne Mountain a quick advantage on the scoreboard while
hard-nosed hustle from the likes of forward Joey Johnson
and big sophomore, Kevin Davis, earned them surprising
dominance on the ice. When Trevor Isbell scored from the
left wing at 9:26 in the first, L-P had reason to worry. Just two minutes
later, a pair of penalties gave the Rangers reason to be frightened. The
Lewis-Palmer defense packed in front of the crease and their goalie,
Brent Schwarz, got dialed in to the
flight of the pucks, though. L-P survived the 5-on-3, the rest
of the power play and the rest of the opening period without any more
harm.
In the second period, Schwarz was now clearly
seeing and stopping anything else that would come his way. And defenseman,
Travis Fisk and Chris Fisher, began
finding and denying Davis from owning their zone. But
collectively, Coach Steve Fillo's club was still getting
pushed around along the boards and outskated to the puck. The Rangers
remained resilient, though. They may be the finesse team in terms of
identity, but they are also very opportunistic when a chance to
pounce presents itself. With slightly over five minutes left in the
second, Tyler Rigg beat a defenseman to the puck and
scored on a breakaway. Just like that... L-P had the hope revived.
That hope became
overt confidence when Kyle Lee, normally a pass-minded
stick-handler, decided it was time for him to
attack. With merely three minutes remaining in regulation, Lee
went solo along the right wing and squeezed the puck through
the goaltender's pads to tie the game at 2-2.
Driven by the adrenaline of their comeback and the
enthusiasm of their orange-clad fans, L-P came out in attack mode in the
overtime period. It took them less than four minutes to finish off their
opponents and they did it with a gorgeous goal! Jordy
Fleming led a 2-on-1 rush into the Indians' zone while
Kyle Lachner trailed down the center slot. The lone
defenseman didn't commit. So Fleming released a slap shot. Indians goalie,
Zach Neal, made a great stop but didn't
control the puck. His defenseman didn't react to the rebound. And there
was Lachner with a wide-open look to the back of the net. Fling.
Wrist-shot. Score! Rangers win! And somebody's dad has a sweet-lookin'
hockey pic on the memory chip of his camera. Lachner definitely needs to
find that guy. I can still visualize it right now. Definitely a glory
shot.
I love how the Indians play hockey and enjoyed
watching them work for that early lead, but I couldn't stop myself from
being impressed by and endeared to the Rangers. The Lewis-Palmer kids
were getting seriously handled. But the Rangers -- each wearing a #11
patch on his sweater to honor Coach Fillo's son, Stevie, a former
player who lost his life in a car accident this past August -- never
gave up and found a way to win. One more soothing moment of
healing for all the hard work and heartbreak... and if they
win the title... well... that would be an extremely special
moment, wouldn't
it?
Lewis-Palmer
(16-3-3)
0 1 1 1 3
Cheyenne Mountain
(12-7-2) 2 0 0 0
2
LPR: Tyler Rigg (9:58, P2 - Joe Pierce, Matt
Prudhomme), Kyle Lee (11:55, P3 - Travis Fisk), Kyle Lachner (11:15, OT -
Jordy Fleming)
CMI: Nick Vail (2:02, P1 - Bryan Koppa), Trevor Isbell
(9:26, P1 - Cole DeBoer)
Individual stats
may be unofficial. Feedback via e-mail to:
contactus@ispn.tv or martycesario@hotmail.com. Search "CET Sports" on Facebook for pics.
|
