BATTLE MOUNTAIN 4A CHAMPS
Battle Mountain High School hockey players celebrate their Class 4A championship after the Huskies beat Crested Butte 5-4 in overtime Thursday night at the Budweiser Events Center in Loveland.
There aren’t many better words in sports than “overtime hockey,” and that’s exactly what the Class 4A state championship between Battle Mountain and Crested Butte turned into Thursday night at the Budweiser Events Center in Loveland.
Hunter Davis was the hero, scoring in overtime to send Battle Mountain to a 5-4 victory and its first state hockey title in program history.
“I was elated,” Davis said of his game-winner. “I never thought I would be scoring a game-winning goal. I just wanted to make everybody happy, especially all of the seniors. “
Crested Butte’s Matthew Solanik scored a few minutes into the game, signaling Thursday’s final would be a barnburner.
Battle Mountain goaltender Logan Gremmer had a 22-save shutout in the semifinals and has been one of the best goalies in the state. But in a high-paced game full of skill, things did not come easy.
“I think we let them intimidate us,” Battle Mountain head coach Derek Byron said about the first matchup between these two teams, which the Huskies lost 5-1. “We weren’t scared tonight.”
After giving up the first goal, the Huskies swung the momentum in the first period with a couple of power plays, and goals from Wyatt Horn and Tyler Knox completely turned the tide. The Huskies outshot the Titans 10-5 in the first frame.
The second period was when things turned into a back-andforth shootout. Crested Butte got a couple of power plays in a row and capitalized on both. Joseph Stock cleaned one up in front of the net and Solanik picked up his second goal of the game on a snipe from the half wall to put his team up 3-2.
The Huskies fought back with Horn’s second goal of the game. But Crested Butte’s Stock flew down the wing, went around the Battle Mountain defense and finished on his backhand to give his team the 4-3 lead after two periods.
Right when everything looked to be going Crested Butte’s way, Gremmer flashed the leather on a glove save with around 12 minutes left in the third period that looked to change everything for the Huskies.
“If somebody scores a goal or I make a sweet save, all the boys are on board and they just love getting energy from each other,” Gremmer said. “That kept us going.”
Sure enough, Battle Mountain found a way to tie it. Jensen Rawlings showed off his speed and dumped a puck into the zone around the blue line — a puck that found its way into the net to knot things up at four.
Gremmer made a couple more big saves in the third period and finished with 31 on 35 shots, setting up Davis’ heroics.