On Friday night at Magness Arena, Monarch looked like a team on a mission to capture the program’s first championship, zooming out to a 3-0 lead after one period over Cherry Creek en route to an eventual 4-1 victory and fifth straight title game appearance.
Franny Churches gave the No. 2 Coyotes (15-4-2) the lead just 3:07 into the game, and then Brodie Wiener tacked on two more goals in the period to give Monarch an insurmountable advantage over No. 3 Cherry Creek (14-7-1).
“We still had our ups and downs tonight, but we played well as a team from the opening puck drop,” junior captain Yuta Young said. “Plus our seniors were big too—we have a lot of young guys who are having their first experience playing big games in a big stadium, so our seniors stood up when our young guys were nervous and put those goals in at the beginning to get us going.”
Monarch’s victory sets up a rematch of the 2016 title game against No. 1 Regis Jesuit, who ruined the Coyotes’ perfect season with a 6-1 victory last March.
Cherry Creek found some life in the second, first having a goal called off and then finally getting on the scoreboard via Danny Taggart’s slapshot with 10:09 to play in the period. The Bruins continued to press into the third, but goalie Logan Gorbitz and the Coyotes’ defense stood tall under pressure. Jarod Krebill also had a goal on an empty net with less than a minute to play.
It was the third meeting between the two teams this season, with Monarch beating Cherry Creek 5-1 on Jan. 21 and the two teams playing to a 2-2 tie on Feb. 8. But the Coyotes controlled the momentum for nearly the whole night this time around and got a couple key power play kills in the third period to propel them to the win.
And as the Coyotes prepare for Monday’s title game against Regis Jesuit, coach Jimmy Dexter and his staff will go back to the tape of their 3-0 win over the Raiders on Feb. 17—Regis Jesuit’s lone loss this winter—to see what can be done to topple the tournament favorite.
“We’ve shown Regis can be beaten,” Young said. “Throughout the whole season everyone was talking about how they were undefeated and they were going to win, just like last year when we were undefeated going into the championship and we obviously lost. Anything can happen.”
The championship begins at 7 p.m. at Magness Arena.
