BROOMFIELD — In Herb Brooks’ historic pregame speech to his 1980 United States hockey team, he told his boys that the Russians’ time was over.
Ralston Valley coach Jon McKibbon is under the firm belief that this is his team’s time. After back-to-back semifinals losses in each of the last two seasons, the Mustangs exorcised some demons with a 3-0 victory over two-time defending champion Regis Jesuit at the 1stBank Center.
“Before the game we talked about how we felt it was our time,” said McKibbon, who guided the Mustangs to their only other title game appearance in 2007. “These guys truly do believe that they match up well with Regis, and that is no disrespect to them.”
Ralston Valley (18-3-1) will play Lewis-Palmer today at 2:30 p.m. Regis Jesuit finishes the season 18-4.
Regis had the ice slanted in their favor early on, controlling the play in the offensive end and peppering Mustangs goalie Cody Buesser, something that only served to settle the junior for the next two periods.
“I definitely felt like I was in a zone,” said Buesser, who recorded his second shutout of the playoffs. “I was seeing the puck really well. Everything was going in my favor and in our favor tonight.”
The Mustangs, who lost 3-2 to Regis in the regular season, finally broke the scoreless tie in the third period. Mitchell Pijanowski was working behind Regis goalie Mitch Sungelo and his pass was deflected right onto the stick of an unchecked Dillon Taylor, who beat Sungelo.
“It was kind of a fluke,” Regis coach Dan Woodley said. “It could have happened to us or for us and it didn’t. It was in my opinion a fortunate one, but they seemed to gain a lot of energy from it and felt like they could close it out.”
Four minutes later Kyle Bennett would make it a 2-0 game on a breakaway goal that he roofed over Sungelo’s left shoulder.
Regis would pull Sungelo with 1:30 to play and despite creating several chances on their own end, it was Bennett that would score the final tally in the empty net.
Buesser finished with 19 saves.
Ralston Valley 0 0 3 — 3
Regis Jesuit 0 0 0 — 0
First period — None. Penalties — Finnefrock, RV (hooking), 8:23.
Second period — None. Penalties — Day, RV (checking from behind/misconduct), 1:50; Ottenbreit, RJ (roughing), 6:18; Linden, RV (unsportsmanlike conduct), 6:53; Matt Conrad, RJ (hooking), 11:32.
Third period — 1, RV, Taylor (Mit. Pijanowski, Scott), 5:19; 2, RV, Bennett (Tucker, Ditirro), 9:23; 3, RV, Bennett (unassisted), 14:50 en. Penalties — Pasquarella, RJ (elbowing), 5:56; Lee, RV (too many men), 7:05.
Shots on goal — Ralston Valley 5-5-8 — 18; Regis Jesuit 9-2-8 — 19. Saves — Ralston Valley (Buesser) 9-2-8 — 19; Regis Jesuit (Sungelo) 5-5-6 — 16. Power-play opportunities — Ralston Valley 0-for-3; Regis Jesuit 0-for-4.
