Colorado Springs – If Ernie Banks were a hockey player, he most certainly would never have uttered the phrase “Let’s play two.”
But with Mother Nature having enforced her will on the state, teams are scrambling to get games in when time permits. That was the case Saturday for Battle Mountain.
The visiting Huskies from the Vail Valley not only endured the rigorous bus trip to Colorado Springs, but were forced to play twice – at two arenas – with a three-hour break in between.
After outlasting Palmer 3-2 in overtime at Honnen Arena, Battle Mountain had just enough in the tank to forge a 4-4 tie with Pine Creek at Sertich Arena in the nightcap.
“Three points is definitely good, and we sure didn’t want to leave with two,” Huskies senior forward Derek Byron said. “We pulled the goalie, get that fourth goal, that really helped.”
Battle Mountain improved to 5-2-1, 1-0-1 in the Peak Conference. Pine Creek, playing its conference opener, is 2-4-1 overall.
With Pine Creek holding a 4-3 lead on the strength of an Elliot Linton power-play goal at the start of the third period, Battle Mountain pulled goalie Eric Young with 1:38 to play for the extra skater.
The strategy paid off, and the Huskies, who were 0-for-9 on the power-play (including two 5-on-3 chances), capitalized 12 seconds later. Pine Creek freshman goalie Chris Dylewski made the initial save on Connor Tedstrom’s shot, but failed to cover up and the puck sat at the front of the goal mouth for Ryan Maddux to simply tap in.
“We’ve really struggled on the power play, especially the 5-on-3 all year,” said Huskies coach Gary Defina, whose team spent most of its holiday break playing club games in China. “The same thing happened against Palmer, and fortunately we were able to get the overtime winner in that one, but we will take the three points.”
Said Pine Creek coach Ken Martel: “We kind of just hung on there near the end, they were putting a lot of pressure on us. We’ll take what we got.”
Battle Mountain returns to the Springs on Friday for a date with Air Academy (7-1).
Battle Mountain 2 1 1 0 – 4
Pine Creek 1 2 1 0 – 4
First period – PC: Saunders (Lapham), 14:32; BM: Funk (Sterling, Lammert), 13:15; Woods (Coffey), 9:02. Penalties – Skeele, PC (tripping), 8:25; Robertson, BM (tripping), 1:48.
Second period – PC: Skeele (Lapham, Saunders), 8:41 pp; Lapham (unassisted), 6:03 sh; BM: Chow (Wyatt, J. Stevens), 2:10. Penalties – Lapham, PC (tripping), 13:22; Apostol, BM (slashing), 10:19; Lapham, PC (hooking), 8:18; Linton, PC (elbowing), 7:37; Ellis, PC (hooking), 5:55.
Third period – PC: Linton (Tucker, Partridge), 13:31 pp; BM: Maddux (Tedstrom, J. Stevens), 1:26. Penalties – Apostol, BM (hooking), 13:49; Apostol, BM (elbowing), 11:51; Oligmueller, PC (interference), 9:21; Linton, PC (boarding), 8:55; Schneider, PC (tripping), 4:27; Melzer, BM (interference), :15.
Overtime – None. Penalties – Linton, PC (interference), 7:58; Skeele, PC (roughing), 7:40; Tedstrom, BM (roughing), 7:40.
Shots on goal – Battle Mtn. 7-10-7-5 – 29; Pine Creek 10-4-2-2 – 18. Saves – Battle Mtn. (Young) 9-2-1-2 – 14; Pine Creek (Dylewski) 5-9-6-5 – 25. Power-play opportunities – Battle Mtn. 0-for-9; Pine Creek 2-for-5.
Jon E. Yunt can be reached at 303-954-1354 or jyunt@denverpost.com.
