www.sailorhockey.com Steamboat Sailors Hockey Last Updated: November 25, 2009   Main Menu   Welcome   Handouts   Bulletin Board   Calendar   Teams/Rosters   Schedules   Game Results   Contact Info   Links   Sponsors   Directions   PHOTO ALBUMS Hall Of Fame   POINTSTREAK  Administration New Sailor Fans 13,745  Bulletin Board Guestbook | Weather | Top 100 Sites      > Miscellaneous Steamboat hockey players getting off-season ice time August 1, 2009  --   By Luke Graham The Steamboat Springs High School hockey team advanced to the second round of the state playoffs for the first time in the program’s history last year. But as sports mentalities go, that’s not enough. The team, the coaches and the players want more. “I think both (assistant coach) Dave (Strang) and I share a commitment to this program,” Steamboat coach Jeff Ruff said. “We understand the need for more workouts and keeping the focus on improving. The results have spoken for themselves.” Those results are boosted by summer workouts Ruff and Strang have put together for the past four summers. This year, the two have held informal workouts from 8:15 to 9:15 p.m. Mondays and 9 to 10 p.m. Thursdays at Howelsen Ice Arena. The workouts started in early June and run until the beginning of September. They’ve featured players from the high school team, former players, girls on the Steamboat U-18 team, as well as incoming freshmen. Players from Oak Creek and Moffat County also have participated. “One of our goals is ... to use this summer time to build that level so when our season does roll around we’re right on top of games,” Strang said. “Every game matters. Every game is so critical.” As much as the sessions are a refresher to the team, they also serve as the prime skill and technique building blocks for the season. The sessions usually focus on one skill element of hockey. For instance, a lot of the practices work on 1-on-1 or 2-on-2 situations. Others work on passing, skating, stick handling and positioning. The camps are essential for Steamboat. Whereas powerhouse teams from Colorado Springs and Denver often play in a quasi-high school league in the summer and spring, Steamboat doesn’t have that luxury. Teams from the Front Range often get more than 20 games in during the offseason, essentially equating to another season. Although Steamboat will play in a fall club league with some teams from Denver, Vail and Summit, it’s these summer workouts that should go a long way come playoff seeding time. It’s critical for Steamboat to develop skills in the summer, so the team can focus on other areas when the winter season begins. Ruff said the workouts allow the team to work on systems, power plays and penalty kills when the first practice of the high school season begins, rather than belaboring the finer points of shooting, skating and passing. “We’re committed to a successful program,” Ruff said. “This is all part of what it takes. Other coaches do the same thing and we want to be competitive.” Sailors hockey players receive All-State honors March 11, 2009  --   By Luke Graham Steamboat Springs — After making the second round of the state playoffs for the first time in years, the Steamboat Springs High School hockey team raked in the postseason awards. Topping the list for the Sailors were Matt Dawes, Grant Ehrick and Cody Fritz. Dawes, a junior, and Ehrick, a senior, each earned first team All-State from the Colorado High School Activities Asso­ciation. In the regular season, Dawes led the state with 14 wins, tied for second with three shutouts and was sixth in save percentage. From his defenseman position, Ehrick had eight goals and nine assists in the regular season. Fritz, a senior, received an honorable mention All-State nod after leading Steamboat in scoring. Ehrick and Dawes also were named first team Peak All-Conference. Joining them on the list was Fritz on the second team, along with sophomore Jake Bearss and senior Eric Bonner as honorable mentions. “It was such a good group of guys,” Steamboat coach Jeff Ruff said. “The guys we have that were named to All-State or All-Conference got there because they have a strong supporting cast that made them play well.” The team also was named All-State academically with a 3.26 grade point average. It’s the fourth year in a row the hockey team has received the award. Former Sailor helps college hockey team to national title By Luke Graham Steamboat Springs — Miranda Schrock always had been ahead of the athletic curve. She played on the Steam­boat Springs High School boys hockey team her senior year, and she always was a leader on the soccer field. Now, the 2008 graduate can add another accomplishment to her résumé. Schrock, a freshman at Lin­denwood University in St. Charles, Mo., helped the Lions’ girls team repeat as American Collegiate Hockey Association Division I hockey national champions. The ACHA Division I features top-level club hockey. Lindenwood beat rival Robert Morris, 2-1, on Sunday in the championship game. “Having the feeling of winning the national title is indescribable,” Schrock said. “I was just so happy. It was the best feeling. It was the perfect day. The whole team was just glowing.” In the regular season, Sch­rock finished with five goals, 10 assists and a plus-17 rating, which means Lindenwood scored 17 more goals than it gave up while Schrock was on the ice. She helped her team get into the quarterfinals by scoring a total of two goals in the first two rounds of the postseason. Schrock admitted when she got to the program and started playing she was initially nervous. But as the season progressed, Schrock said she realized she not only could play at this level, but she could contribute heavily. Schrock compared the level of play to the boys high school hockey team her senior year. “When I first found out about the team, the coach said how he had people coming in from Sweden,” Schrock said. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh. What am I getting myself into?’ I thought I’d be at the lower end of the spectrum. But it’s been awesome.” The Lions were expected to take a step back after last year’s national championship. The team lost eight seniors and featured a roster full of freshmen and sophomores. Still, Schrock said the goal for the season always was to win another national title. “I felt like I had to fill some big shoes lost from last year,” Schrock said. “But midway through the season, after like 20 games, I felt pretty comfortable. Everybody knew if we worked hard and played like a team we could come out and win the national championship.” Although Schrock originally planned to try to play soccer at Lindenwood, as well, she said after the hockey season — which ran from the start of school to Sunday — she thinks she might just stick to hockey and try to win a couple more national championships. “Everyone thought this is going to be a rebuilding year,” said Schrock, who is studying graphic design. “Nobody was expecting us to win another national championship. No­­body expected us to do that. Everyone thought this team was a lot more weak. “We did lose a lot of talent from last year, but as a team — that’s how we succeeded. We succeeded as a team.” Ex-Steamboat player Coloccia ends college hockey career By John F. Russell University of Colorado senior Daniel Coloccia’s college hockey career came to an end in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Thursday after a 2-1 loss to Miami of Ohio in the 2009 American Collegiate Hockey Association Division II National Championships. Coloccia had hoped his team would break out of pool play and make it to the semifinals this year. In the opener Tuesday, the Buffaloes had erased a three-goal deficit in the third period against William Paterson (25-10-1) to win 8-4. But this wasn’t the storybook ending the senior defenseman and former Steamboat Springs High School standout (2004-05) had wanted. Colorado (24-13-1) suffered a heartbreaking 5-1 loss to the defending national champion Davenport University (39-3-1) on Wednesday night and then faded in a 2-1 loss to Miami of Ohio in Coloccia’s final game Thursday. Davenport, Colorado State, Siena and Florida Gulf Coast advanced out of pool play and will play in the finals, which begin today. “I will never forget that game (against William Paterson),” Coloccia said. “The passion. The comeback. Scoring seven goals in the third period. It was perfect, and it showed how committed these guys are to our team, and to our game. I’ll never forget these guys.” Coloccia was a captain for Colorado the past two seasons and plans to graduate from the university this spring with a degree in ecology and environmental biology. “Dan loves hockey,” said Everett Pfeiff, general manager of the University of Colorado hockey team. “There’s no question that he will be involved with the game in one way or another for the rest of his life. Pfeiff said the role of the ACHA is to provide a venue for athletes to pursue their love of hockey and experience the game at a high level. The league uses the same rules and format as the higher level NCAA division. “I predict a bright future for Dan no matter what he goes on to do,” Pfeiff said. “He’s got an engaging personality, and he’s a bright, intelligent young man. He will be successful.” “I’m hoping to get something in the bio-technology field, or maybe I will go to graduate school. I’m just not sure,” Coloccia said. The one thing that is for sure it that his run as a member of the University of Colorado’s Division II hockey team has come to an end. “I’m just so proud of this team and these guys,” Coloccia said. “We made it to the national finals all four years I was here, and that’s something I’m very proud of doing.” Coloccia has been playing hockey since he first stepped onto the ice as a mite with the Steamboat Springs Youth Hockey Association. Coloccia’s hard working personality has always served him well, according to his former coach Jeff Ruff “I coached him off and on since he was 7 years old,” Ruff said. “He’s always been willing to work hard, as hard as he has needed to accomplish his goals.” Coloccia’s run in Steamboat was interrupted by a stint with the AAA midget minor Outlaws in Littleton. But he returned to Steamboat Springs, and coach Ruff, in 2004 to finish his prep career as a member of the Steamboat Springs High School team. That year, he was a team captain and was named to the All-State team. After high school, he went to the University of Colorado, where he extended his hockey career. “He made a major impression on this team,” Pfeiff said. “He is one of four seniors that we are losing this year. But I think his departure will have the biggest impact on this team.” The one thing Coloccia had hoped for was to leave the ice with no regrets, and he was thankful for his years with Colorado. “I’ve made some great, life-long friendships on this team,” Coloccia said. “I’ve been here since I was a freshman, and this has been one of the best things about college.” Steamboat Springs hockey star earns recognition for talent April 26, 2009  --   By Luke Graham Steamboat Springs — Matt Dawes is the best high school hockey goalie in the state. There isn’t much debate. He steals games, makes saves he shouldn’t and always had the Steamboat Springs High School hockey team in a position to win. The numbers don’t lie. He led the state in wins, was second in shutout and his goals-against average was second among goalies with more than 15 starts. Other coaches and media outlets recognized Dawes’ work, naming him to the Colorado High School Activities As­­so­ciation and The Denver Post first team All-State teams. “That Dawes kid is outstanding,” said Lewis-Palmer coach Steve Fillo, whose team lost in the state championship game. “He’s something special. He could steal a game for you at any time.” But if you look beyond the obvious, more than the numbers and high marks from coaches show just how special Dawes really is. The junior is a sponge for information, might be the most prepared athlete in the state and has worked endlessly for everything he has received. “He gives you the opportunity to win every game for sure,” Steamboat coach Jeff Ruff said. “As long as we have offense and the ability to get points, he’s a game-stealer. He’s the make-or-break guy that did keep us in games, especially early in (the) season.” Dawes split time in goal with his brother, Jeff, during Matt’s sophomore year. With Jeff de­­parting, Matt turned all of his attention to his junior year. After attending several camps, including an event in Buffalo, N.Y., for top prospects, Dawes said he found the key for his big breakthrough. Two weeks before the start of the high school season, Dawes connected with a mental toughness coach. It’s there where Dawes found the biggest aid to his game. “I’m in the best shape I’ve ever been in,” he said. “But hockey is 90 percent mental. I feel so mature and was able to look at the game and take situations of stuff I’d been working on and apply it.” For instance, Dawes struggled in the middle of the past season with giving up first period goals. But with his mental preparation, he does a lot of journaling, so to get over his first period struggles, Dawes made a checklist of 20 things to get done in each game’s first frame. They were little games Dawes could win and little things he could concentrate on to reach an end result. “It opened a whole new door with hockey and about being a goalie,” he said. “You can be in the best physical shape, but if you don’t have a mental game, you won’t be the best goalie.” Dawes should have a lot of opportunities to play elsewhere in the near future. Along with attending camps across the nation, Dawes just returned from the Chicago Showcase where he played with Team Colorado in the showcase’s toughest division. Hundreds of scouts are at every camp he attends. But where some elite athletes might take a chance with junior hockey next year, Dawes said he’s not done in Steamboat. He said he’s “almost 100 percent sure” he’s staying to play for the Sailors. “I want to be spending time with my family,” he said. “I’ll be happy to know I stayed in Steamboat with my friends and family.” But after he graduates, he plans to take two years to play junior hockey. From there, he will hope to catch on at a Division I or Division III hockey team. Until then, though, opposing coaches will cringe. Dawes said he’s not satisfied. He’s going to continue to journal, work out and undoubtedly prepare himself for an even better season as a senior. “It was an awesome year, but it’s not over yet,” he said. “I’m going to work even harder. Hard work is what gets you rewarded. I’m going to step up my mental game and get in better physical shape. I want to make the playoffs again, win that second playoff game and do a lot better.” Regis hockey knocks out Sailors February 22, 2009  --   Steamboat ends strong season with loss to No. 1 seed By Mike Lawrence Denver — Coach Jeff Ruff said the Sailors hockey team learned Saturday what it means to be a defending state champion. Regis, the No. 1 seed, last year’s champion and a team that is undefeated in 23 games, knocked off Steam­boat Springs High School, 5-1, at the Family Sports Center in Denver. The loss ended the Sailors’ season in the quarterfinal round of the state tournament. Regis broke the game open with three goals in the second period. “Our guys played a good couple of periods, but the second period we’d sure like to have back,” Ruff said. “When they raised their bar … our bar didn’t go that high. I think we were surprised at their intensity level. … They were there to prove why they are defending state champions.” The game was physical from the start. Junior winger Jon Winkelblech, who has battled through injuries this season, suffered a broken clavicle in the first period Saturday, Ruff said. Ruff said Regis players “sure were swarming the nets” with a potent offensive attack that fired 38 shots on goal compared to Steamboat’s 16. Ruff credited the play of Matt Dawes in goal. “Matt Dawes probably would like two of those goals back, but three of them were just quality goals and quality shots,” Ruff said about Dawes’ effort between the pipes. Ruff also said “Grant Ehrick was outstanding” for the Sailors and that Eric Bonner “played a physical, physical game.” Steamboat got on the board at the 2:27 mark in the third period, scoring on a breakaway after Jake Bearss intercepted a pass and sent the puck to a streaking Cody Fritz, who shot high into the Regis net. Steamboat ends the season at 16-5. “This is a great group of guys,” Ruff said. “This is the first time we’ve made it to the second round of the playoffs; it’s the best record a Steamboat team has had — it’s totally been a successful season. The fact that you lose to the defending state champions in the quarterfinals doesn’t negate that.” Sailors hockey beats Peak to Peak, advances February 21, 2009  --   By Mike Lawrence Denver - Steamboat Springs High School hockey won in the first round of the state tournament Friday night in Denver, with a 4-1 victory against Peak to Peak. The Sailors never trailed in the game and led almost immediately, scoring 28 seconds into the first period on a goal by Lance Ostrom. Steamboat added two more in the second period at the Family Sports Center, as Eric Bonner and James Whelihan found the back of the net. Coach Jeff Ruff said the scores were “two beautiful goals,” as Bonner ripped a shot through traffic high into the net, and Whelihan used good positioning to knock in a rebound. “Those are the kind of goals we work for and practice,” Ruff said. The Puma’s leading scorer on the season, forward Shay Longtain, picked up a shorthanded goal at the 10:51 mark of the second period for Peak to Peak’s only score. Steamboat had 28 shots on goal in the game compared to 15 for Peak to Peak. Ruff said goalie Matt Dawes made “a couple of huge saves to keep us in the game.” Grant Ehrick tallied a score late in the third period for the 4-1 final result. “Our guys did what we hoped they would do, and they came out and played a solid, solid game for us,” Ruff said. Steamboat, the No. 8 seed, now faces undefeated No. 1 seed Regis, who won the state tournament last year and hasn’t lost in 23 games. The Sailors watched Regis’ 8-1 win against Doherty earlier Friday. Ruff said Steamboat will need to protect the puck and limit turnovers, but he’s confident about the well-conditioned Sailors’ chances in today’s game, which starts at 5:40 p.m. in Denver. Steamboat hockey downs Palmer, 2-0, in physical game February 15, 2009  --   By Luke Graham Steamboat Springs — No more late season collapses, no more going into the playoffs on a down note and no more questions about the effort. The Steamboat Springs High School hockey team came out Saturday against Palmer and put any questions of doubt about the team to rest, playing its most impressive game of the year, a 2-0 win. “I think this is what we’ve been telling our guys all year,” Steamboat coach Jeff Ruff said. “Our guys have been showing glimpses of being able to play at this level all season. We know that, and we believe they can play at this level every game. What we wanted to do was come out and set the tempo.” The win also means Steam­boat (15-4 overall) will finish at least fourth in the Peak Conference and more than likely garner a top-8 seed when the state playoff bracket is released today. Depending on the seeding, Steamboat will play at one of four sites — Aspen, two in Denver or Colorado Springs — next weekend. Although the Sailors wait to see whom they play, there might not be too many teams who will be excited to see them after Saturday’s performance. Palmer, who came in second in the conference, could muster little offensive attack against a wired up Steamboat team. Sailors sophomore Jake Bearss scored what would be the game-winner just six minutes into the contest. With a man advantage, Bearss got the puck in the neutral zone, skated into the Terrors zone and blasted a shot from between the circles and over Palmer goalie Dylan Slizewski’s glove hand. From there, the Sailors kept the shifts short and the pressure on. After a scoreless second period, Steamboat had ample opportunities to get the insurance goal to put the game away. But the Sailors kept coming up empty handed, and the Terrors had a 2-on-1 break — their best chance of the night — with less than a minute remaining in the contest. Junior goalie Matt Dawes made a sprawling, game saving stop with 42 seconds remaining. “It was going all in,” Dawes said about his team’s effort. “We need to be on a roll going into the playoffs. We’re very dangerous. If we go all in again, we’ll be tough to beat. We raised the bar, and we need to stay up there.” Play got chippy in the third period with multiple scrums breaking out and two Palmer players getting the gate. The final one left Steamboat on the power play again, where senior Charlie Smith skated in and lasered a shot over Slizewski’s stick hand to give Steamboat a 2-0 lead with 30 seconds remaining. “This is what we’ve been expecting to see,” Ruff said. “We’ve seen it in different games, but this is what we expect heading into the playoffs. This is playoff hockey. … I think this is a very dangerous team right now. The confidence is very high. These boys, right now, feel they compete with and beat any team.” Playoff seeds will be released mid-day today. Check www.chsaa.org for complete brackets. Sailors topple Eagles in hockey, 4-0 February 14, 2009  --   By Luke Graham Steamboat Springs — It’s interesting what happens when the Steamboat Springs High School hockey team moves its feet. After a lackadaisical first period Fri­day against Pine Creek High School, Steam­boat started to move, pass the puck and create opportunities. The end re­­sult was a 4-0 win, keeping the Sailors alive for a top-eight seed in the state playoffs. “If you see it, do it,” Steamboat coach Jeff Ruff said. “We started moving our feet and exploiting their holes. It all came together.” Steamboat used the second period to determine the outcome of the game. Scoreless through one period, the Sailors (14-4 overall) scored all four of their goals in the second period, including two with a man down. Cody Fritz got the scoring going just more than three minutes into the period on a feed from Brady Bender. Skylar Martin made it 2-0 midway through the period, and Fritz and Jim Whelihan scored shorthanded goals just 10 seconds apart to end the period, 4-0. “We challenged the guys to work a little harder and move quicker,” Ruff said. “We scored four in the second period on a team that never gave up.” Now, Steamboat turns its attention to Palmer, a team that sits in second place in the Peak Conference. Ruff said the game has huge playoff implications, with a Sai­lors win putting them in a tie for third place in the conference. “We’re going to come out and try and dictate play and get a lot of opportunities,” Ruff said. “We want to make that goaltender play a little more. What we need to do is jump up and battle a little more.” The two teams play at 3 p.m. today at Howelsen Ice Arena. Sailors vent Friday frustration in Saturday romp against Cougars February 8, 2009  --   By Luke Graham Colorado Springs — Nobody wanted to be in the Cougars’ skates on Saturday. Not with a frustrated Steam­boat Springs High School hockey team coming off a pivotal 3-2 loss to Cheyenne Mountain on Friday. Any dissatisfaction Steamboat had from Friday’s loss was taken out on Coronado High School, as the Sailors skated to an easy 7-2 win. “We came out with a lot,” Steamboat coach Jeff Ruff said. “We were a lot hungrier for the puck and a lot hungrier around the net. They proved that’s the way they needed to play.” In addition to outshooting the Cougars, 45-18, the Sailors got scoring from nearly every line. Jim Whelihan got the scoring going a minute into the first period when he took a feed from Kaelen Gunderson. Cody Fritz, John Wharton, Eric Bonner and Ian Anderson all added second-period goals — the last three coming on a power play — to take a 5-1 lead heading into the third period. “It was extremely important after a tough loss to come out like that,” Ruff said. “It was important for us to set the tempo. Our guys proved to themselves and their team that they were there to compete.” Fritz added another goal early in the third period, and Jake Bearss completed the romp with a late goal of his own. Steamboat, 13-4 overall, now prepares for its final weekend of the regular season. The team plays at 6:30 p.m. Friday against Pine Creek before welcoming Palmer for a 3 p.m. game Saturday. Both games are at Howelsen Ice Arena. Although Pine Creek has struggled this year, Palmer comes in sitting in second place in the Peak Conference. Steamboat currently is in fifth. Ruff said while he was able to roll four lines Saturday, he’ll more than likely shorten his bench during the weekend and get the pairings on the ice that are playing the best together. And although Ruff is confident where his team is at, he said it’s important to make sure Steamboat wins these last two games. “They’re extremely important,” he said. “Every game we win is playoff seeding potential. We definitely need to win these last two games to get into that fourth position.” Sailors lose on the road to Cheyenne Mountain, 3-2 February 7, 2009  --   By Luke Graham Colorado Springs - The Steamboat Springs High School hockey team couldn’t overcome penalties and two inopportune turnovers on Friday, as the team fell on the road to Cheyenne Mountain, 3-2. “Again, Cheyenne Mountain is tough to overcome,” Steam­boat coach Jeff Ruff said. “They are a proud team. I think we had good quality opportunities at their net; we just couldn’t capitalize.” Steamboat fell behind early when Cheyenne Mountain’s Trentt Houghton scored midway through the first period, after a Sailors turnover gave him a breakaway. The Sailors bounced back in the second, getting a pair of power play goals from Ian Anderson and Cody Fritz to take a 2-1 lead. But Houghton responded again late in the second period with a 5-on-3 power play tally of his own that made it 2-2 heading into the third period. After the two teams skated scoreless for almost 14 minutes of the third period, Cheyenne Mountain’s Joey Johnson scored the game-winning, short-handed goal. The goal again came on a Steamboat turnover in the neutral zone that led to another breakaway. “We allowed two real bad turnovers, which we can’t give up to allow a breakaway,” Ruff said. “We also took too many penalties, especially in the third period. We out-competed them when we played five on five.” The loss drops Steamboat to 12-4 overall. The team resumes play at 1:15 p.m. today at Coronado. Ruff said the team has to refocus its efforts into the final three regular season games. While Coronado comes into the game 2-13 overall, Steamboat finishes the season with tough home games against Pine Creek and Pal­mer. Ruff said every game from here until the start of the playoffs becomes a must-win. “We did out-compete that team for a lot of the game. We just have to clean up a couple costly errors,” Ruff said. “We’ll regroup. We have to be hungrier around the net. We have to learn that stuff for these games down the stretch.” Sailors hockey ices Eagles, 6-0 February 1, 2009  --   Steamboat gets contributions from young players in win By Luke Graham Steamboat Springs — It was pretty evident prior to Saturday’s Steamboat Springs and Valor Christian high school hockey game how it was going to turn out. Valor Christian, a first-year school in Highlands Ranch, came into the game winless and showed up with nine players. Three periods later, Steam­boat skated away with a dominating 6-0 win, where it outshot Valor Christian, 52-5. “What we try and do is set a couple concrete goals,” Steam­boat coach Jeff Ruff said about how his team approaches a game like this. “In terms of working on our plays, we wanted to move the puck low and keep real disciplined play. So we have some real concrete plays that will help us against any team.” Right from the start, Steam­boat established its dominance. The Sailors got first period goals from Ian Anderson, Lance Ostrom and Cody Fritz in building a 3-0 lead. Steamboat goalie Matt Dawes was the loneliest man on the ice, facing just one shot in the first period. After a scoreless second period, Steamboat added goals from Kaelen Gunderson, Jake Bearss and Gus Worden to complete the rout. Even though the competition wasn’t up to Steamboat’s level, Ruff said he was happy with the way certain things turned out. After Friday’s 5-2 win against Air Academy, Ruff said he wanted to see some of his younger players score and gain confidence. Against the Eagles, the Sailors got contributions from just about every line. “It felt relieving,” said Ostrom, who had been in a bit of a funk offensively. “It helped me. I think in later games it’ll really help me. I’m just looking forward to the playoffs. We have quite a bit of confidence, but we just have to keep working hard in practice.” Now Steamboat turns its attention to the final two weekends of play. The team next plays at 4 p.m. Friday at Cheyenne Mountain. Although the next four games will determine the Sailors’ seed heading into the state playoffs, Ruff said Steamboat’s jaunt to the state playoffs began Friday against Air Academy. “I think, as we’ve proved Friday night, we’re ready to play,” Ruff said. “I’d like to get a couple guys back … but when we get everybody back in the lineup, I’m confident we are where we need to be.” Steamboat hockey responds to coach in 5-2 win January 31, 2009  --   By Luke Graham Steamboat Springs — Before Friday’s game against Air Academy, Steamboat Springs High School hockey coach Jeff Ruff said his players would have to start fast and finish strong to win. The Sailors responded emphatically on both fronts. Steamboat got an early goal and dominated the third period en route to a 5-2 win. “We had talked a lot about what we needed to do for what we’ll see towards the end of the season and into the playoffs,” Ruff said. “Part of what we want to do is set the tempo, and for two and a half periods we did.” Besides a brief point at the end of the second and beginning of the third periods, Steamboat outplayed Air Academy. The Sailors got it started when Eric Bonner lasered a shot from between the circles, past Kadets goalie Marcus Harbison. Air Academy knotted the score at 1 a minute into the second period when Steamboat goalie Matt Dawes couldn’t handle Cameron Duba’s rebound, and Adam Paiement pounced on the puck. The Kadets appeared to take the lead two minutes later when a puck squeaked through Dawes’ legs, but the referees blew the whistle before the puck crossed the goal line. Kaelen Gunderson gave Steamboat the lead midway through the second period when he deflected a Bonner shot into the net on a power play for a 2-1 lead. Charlie Smith made it 3-1 early in the third when he pounded home a perfectly placed puck off the stick of Gus Worden. The Kadets’ Carson Chase cut the Steamboat lead to 3-2 a few seconds later when he scored on a delayed penalty. But Steamboat, 11-3 overall, responded with goals from Gunderson and Cody Fritz to put the game away. “We knew their goalie would give up some rebounds,” said Bonner, who finished with a goal and an assist. “We wanted to get that puck on net, get some rebounds and maybe get lucky.” Steamboat plays Valor Christian at 3 p.m. today at Howelsen Ice Arena. Despite Valor Christian’s 0-14 record, Ruff said, at this point, it’s more a matter of how Steamboat plays, not whom the team plays. “The biggest thing we need to do (today) facing a weaker opponent is stick with the systems instead of being selfish,” Ruff said. “The other thing is we need to get scoring from some of our guys that need to get confidence.” Steamboat hockey skates to 6-0 win January 24, 2009  --   Sailors shut out Liberty Lancers as all lines, backups contribute By Luke Graham Steamboat Springs — The Steamboat Springs High School hockey team got contributions from every line Friday, as the team beat Liberty, 6-0. The Sailors (9-3 overall) got first-period goals from Cody Fritz and Kaelen Gunderson on their way to the win. Jake Bearss scored shorthan­ded in the second period before Fritz made it 4-0 with a power play goal on assists from Lance Ostrom and Patrick Weston. Freshman Brady Bender added a third-period power-play goal, and Eric Bonner scored late to give Steamboat the win. Matt Dawes made 13 saves and backup goalie Erik Owen stopped all six shots he faced. Owen gets the start for Steamboat when the team plays at 1:15 p.m. today at Fountain Valley (2-7 overall). Huskies get payback against Sailors with win January 20, 2009  --   Chris Freud/Vail Daily Vail — The hats came flying over the Battle Mountain bench and onto the ice with 2:07 left in Monday night’s game against Steamboat Springs at Dobson Arena. Battle Mountain’s Jack Sun­derland had a hat trick, and captain Geoff Funk was in on the host’s first four goals as the Huskies downed Steamboat Springs, 5-2, avenging a 4-0 loss to the Sailors in December. “They didn’t need to get up for it. I just taped the scoresheet to the door,” said Huskies coach Gary Defina, who clearly didn’t have to get into Knute Rockne mode before the game. “That was all that took. They remember.” “Everyone was counting us out, so for us to upset Steamboat like that, one of our rivals, that was fun,” said Sunderland after his first high school hat trick. Although it was certainly a revenge game, it’s questionable whether it was an upset. In winning their eighth game in nine tries, the Huskies moved to 9-3 overall and 6-0 in the Peak Conference. Meanwhile, the Sailors, after a 6-0 start in December, are 8-3 and 2-3. “We knew that Battle Mountain was going to come hungry for this game, and we knew that we wanted to set the tempo in the first period, which I don’t think we did as good a job on,” Steamboat coach Jeff Ruff said. “We prepared for it. We worked hard and skated a lot in practice. Like I said, I feel that it would have been a more competitive game had we had 5-on-5 all the way through the game.” Whistles Neither coach was too happy with the officiating, which is nothing new to any form of high school sports. Defina didn’t like the third-period interference call on Ryan Berry, which led to a goal by Steamboat’s Cody Fritz, narrowing Battle Mountain’s lead to 3-2. While speaking before looking at the scoresheet after the game, Ruff felt the Sailors got too much attention from the refs. Steamboat had 12 minor penalties to Battle Mountain’s nine. The differential was 10-6, discounting the 10 minutes of penalties, which were handed out in the final minute of regulation after the game essentially was decided. The Huskies scored three times on the advantage, while Steamboat’s Fritz had a power-play goal. The Sailors’ Jake Bearss scored short-handed in the second period. “I can’t help wondering how the penalties are called so lopsided in such a physical game where a Battle Mountain team is that much cleaner than our team,” Ruff said. “I walk away feeling that 5-on-5, it would have been a much more competitive game on both sides. I can’t blame the referees.” “We knew we had to stay out of the box, let them take the penalties and let them get frustrated,” Defina said. Echo chamber? Sunderland is the pivot on Battle Mountain’s second line. But when the Huskies go on the power play, the sophomore goes to the first unit, and he seems to be a very good fit. With 5:14 left in first, Steamboat goalie Matt Dawes got a piece of Connor Tedstrom’s shot. The rebound came out to Funk. The captain had a shot, but he dished it instead to Sunderland on the right side of the net for a 1-0 lead. Five minutes later — again on the power play, this time a 5-on-3 — it was Tedstrom to Funk to Sunderland — again. “We just set up differently on the power play,” Sunderland said. “It just seems to work out this year. We’re getting goals like crazy. It’s definitely working.” Bearss answered for Steam­boat with a short-handed goal, streaking from his own end to halve Battle Mountain’s lead. Spencer Fox got what would be the game winner with 12:22 left in the third on the first of two helpers from Cody Kleisinger. Yet Steamboat would not go away. The Sailors scored on a 5-on-3 of their own with Fritz’s tally. Needing to ice things, Funke, answered as a part of a one-goal, three-assist night. And then it was Sunderland with the hat trick. Springs-bound Both teams head to Colorado Springs this weekend. The Sailors play Liberty and Fountain Valley, respectively, while the Huskies have a huge weekend at Lewis-Palmer and Palmer. The Huskies lead the Peak Conference at 6-0 with Palmer at 5-0 and Lewis-Palmer at 3-1. The only other team in the Peak with one loss is Cheyenne Mountain, and the Huskies gave the Indians that defeat and thus hold the tiebreaker there, so these are some big games for the last weekend in January. “We know this is it here for first place in the conference, and it’s on the road which makes it that much tougher,” Defina said. “Both those teams are going to come out fired up in their barns, and they know it’s for first place. We have to match their intensity and use our special teams to take care of those games.” Steamboat Springs hockey team overcomes early hole to win January 17, 2009  --   By Joel Reichenberger Steamboat Springs - There was plenty of reason for the Steamboat Springs High School hockey team to be frustrated early in its Friday night game against Doherty. The Sailors blasted powerful shot after powerful shot toward the Spartans’ net and continually missed high or wide. Those misses were attempts to match Doherty’s first goal of the game, a lightning-quick strike to take the lead less than a minute into the first period. Steamboat finally found a way to connect; however, and by game’s end, it was the Spartans who were venting their frustration. They initiated a pair of brawls in the closing minutes as Steamboat skated away with the 4-1 victory safely in hand. “Our response to their first goal was excellent. After that, we picked up our intensity level, and we controlled the pace of the game,” Steamboat coach Jeff Ruff said. “I am real happy with the way the game turned out.” Senior Gus Worden led the Sailors with two goals, including his second-period shot from the wing that put Steamboat on top for good. Before that, Doherty took the early lead when sophomore Braden Johnson caught the Steamboat defense and goalie Matt Dawes off balance. “They caught me off guard, and I was behind a screen,” Dawes said. “We got a laugh out of it. That happens sometimes, but you have to put it behind you and come back.” He and his team found plen­ty of ways to re­­­spond. The Sai­lors answered mid­­­­­­­­­­­­way through the first period. Steam­boat junior Jon Winkelblech flip­­ped a Grant Ehrick shot over the defense and into the goal. Worden then started the scoring in the second with his go-ahead score. “I was actually trying to pass,” Worden said. “I was trying to get it to Grant Mc­­Cannon, but their guy laid out and the puck just went in past him. We got lucky.” Doherty’s chippy nature came to a head late in the game. A fight broke out after a check as players scrambled for a loose puck. Another fight followed as Steamboat skated off the ice after the final whistle. That same attitude cost Doherty throughout the night. Winkelblech’s goal came on a power play, as did Steamboat’s fourth, an easy shot Worden tapped in during the waning moments. The Sailors applied pressure throughout the game as Doherty struggled to keep a full squad on the ice. After the first goal, the Spartans’ only offensive threats came early in the second period. Steamboat played a man down for five minutes, but Dawes made three strong saves. The Sailors were right back on the offensive after returning to full power. Ehrick scored after Worden’s first to give Steamboat a safe 3-1 lead heading into the final period. “We knew we could come back,” Worden said. “We came in playing hard, and we really wanted to win. We settled down and played better.” Steamboat, 8-2, returns to the ice Monday for a game at Battle Mountain. Sailors hockey bounces back with 4-1 win against Rampart January 11, 2009  --   By Luke Graham Steamboat Springs — As disappointed as Steam­boat Springs High School ho­ckey coach Jeff Ruff was with Friday’s loss to Pueblo County, he was equally impressed with Saturday’s 4-1 win against Rampart. “We’re real proud of these guys in response to (Friday’s) game,” Ruff said. “They executed and got back into what we like to refer to as Sailors hockey. It was moving the puck and winning the battles.” Even when Rampart’s Vince Pratt scored to give the Rams a 1-0 lead just 50 seconds into the game, Ruff said the Sailors (7-2 overall) turned things around. Save for the first five minutes of the first period, Ruff said Steamboat owned the rest of the game. “That first goal was an eye-opener for our guys,” Ruff said. “They thought, ‘We better kick it into gear,’ and they responded.” Cody Fritz scored the equalizer 3:10 into the second period when he took a feed from Charlie Smith. Fritz repaid the favor with 51 seconds left in the period when he found Smith for a 2-1 Steamboat lead. Grant Ehrick scored early in the third, and Fritz added an unassisted shorthanded goal to complete the rout. “I’m real proud of their response,” Ruff said. “We know this is the team we have. Neither (assistant coach) Dave (Strang) nor I had any doubt about this team. (Saturday) they proved what kind of team they can be.” Ehrick returns to Sailors hockey for senior year December 28, 2008  --   By Luke Graham Steamboat Springs — Hockey always had been a part of Grant Ehrick’s life. But last year, when the Steamboat Springs High School senior moved to Fort Collins to play in a Triple A league, hockey became his life. Ehrick lived with a host family, attended Fossil Ridge High School and spent most of his free time playing hockey. At times, it got to be too much. Ehrick missed Steam­boat, his friends and a simpler life. So, heading into his senior season, Ehrick decided to leave behind the Triple A team and come back to Steamboat, where he was a top defenseman his freshman and sophomore years. “Hockey really did become my life last year,” Ehrick said. “It was more strenuous keeping my grades up with all the traveling time and practice. Basically, my life was hockey, school and more hockey. I missed hanging out with my friends. It’s difficult to jump into a new school and miss your buddies you’ve hung out with since middle school.” So when the Triple A team disbanded, Ehrick saw an opportunity to make the most of his senior year. The defenseman returned to his hometown to play hockey for the Sailors. It’s a decision Ehrick was glad he made. “At times, I miss playing hockey like I did last year,” Ehrick said. “But here, it’s fun. I am enjoying being back. I’m glad to be back.” Maybe more important, the Sailors are glad Ehrick is back. The senior co-captain has helped Steamboat to a 6-1-0 season standing. In seven games, Ehrick has five goals and four assists. Two of his goals have been game-winners. Ehrick also has helped secure a young blue line with his high level of play. “I think that the younger guys look up to him as one of those players,” Steamboat coach Jeff Ruff said. “He sets the bar so high for his own performance, his own ability and his own condition levels. He never demands that for others, but by setting the bar that high, the others try to get there.” With the bulk of the season and conference games still ahead of Steamboat, Ehrick said he’s focusing on winning as many games as possible. Ehrick said he knows the Sailors have a reputation of playing well before the holiday break and then faltering down the stretch. During his sophomore year, Steamboat went undefeated before Christmas but struggled after the New Year. “Most recently, with the loss to Lewis-Palmer, it showed us we’re not invincible and that we have to go out and work hard every period,” Ehrick said. “If we get big-headed, we’ll start to slide off. But I think it’s different with this team, because that loss stung a little bit. Everybody realizes now it’s going to take 100 percent every shift.” Ehrick said he’d like to continue playing hockey somewhere next year. He plans to try out for some junior teams and will wait to see what happens. Until then, he’s happy to again be one of the playmakers on the Steamboat Springs High School team. “I guess I learned a lot from going down to Fort Collins,” Ehrick said. “There is a lot more to life than just hockey. Hockey is definitely still a big part of my life. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it next year, but I’ve also applied to college because I’ve realized hockey isn’t going to carry me all the way. It was a good experience overall, but I’m glad to be back.” Sailors hockey falls to Hornets January 10, 2009  --   By John F. Russell There’s a chance the members of the Steamboat Springs High School hockey team may have been looking ahead to today’s game in Colorado Springs, but there is no question the team looked past Pueblo County on Friday night at home. “I was disappointed in our effort on the ice tonight,” coach Jeff Ruff said. “Our guys were looking past this team. They out-skated us, they beat us to the puck and they wanted to win more than we did.” The Hornets opened the scoring late in the first period and dictated the pace of the game for all three periods en route to a 3-1 win. Pueblo County forward Brent Gerrett found the back of the net with just a few minutes left in the first. The two teams were scoreless in the second period before Steamboat tied the game early in the third, when Jon Winkelblech scored after getting a nice pass from teammate Cody Fritz to make the score 1-1 with plenty of time remaining. But lapses in the Sailors defense allowed the Hornets to put the game away later in the third. Gage Henrich scored the go-ahead goal at the 10-minute mark, and Marcus Giebel got an insurance goal a few minutes later. Despite the team’s flat performance, Ruff complimented the blue line of Lance Ostrom, Gus Worden and Blayne Conroy. “I’m really proud of those guys and the job they did for us tonight. They were a real bright spot,” Ruff said. “But you need more than one line if you hope to win.” The coach expects a better effort from his team today when the Sailors travel to Colorado Springs to take on the 7-2 Rampart Rams. Sailors Have Tough Day On The Ice December 21, 2008  --   Lewis-Palmer hands Steamboat 1st loss of season By Luke Graham Steamboat Springs — If Lewis-Palmer hockey coach Steve Fillo’s assessment of his team’s 4-0 win against Steamboat Springs High School on Saturday is correct, Sailors fans should be encouraged. Fillo — whose team is ranked second in the state — sees a Sailors squad that has all the potential to make a deep run into the playoffs — a run that could even include round two between the Sailors and the Rangers. “They are a very good team,” Fillo said about Steamboat. “We may very well meet again somewhere down the line late in the playoffs. It won’t be early in the playoffs; it’ll be late in the playoffs.” On Saturday, however, Fillo and the rest of the Rangers proved they are very deserving of their ranking. Using a tenacious forecheck and back check, Lewis-Palmer controlled the game from the start of the second period. The Rangers — who showed up 15 minutes before the game because their bus had to chain up at the Eisenhower Tunnel — got goals from Travis Lachner and Justin Brame early in the second period to build a 2-0 lead. “That’s a well-coached team,” Steamboat coach Jeff Ruff said. “They came in here and stuck to their game plan and executed it. They are fast, and they are tenacious. They beat us to the puck a lot. We knew that was going to be one of the issues we have to deal with. We leave this knowing what level we need to play at to stay competitive.” In the third period — a period that Steamboat usually owns — Lewis-Palmer put the game away early. Just 2:12 into the period, Lachner picked up his second goal of the game. Brame added a late goal for the end result. “I think we wore them down as the game progressed,” Fillo said. “That fatigue showed up on their part.” Steamboat started to play better toward the latter half of the third period, but it couldn’t get anything past Lewis-Palmer goalie Brent Schwartz, who stopped all 24 shots he faced. Steamboat goalie Matt Dawes stopped 29 of the 33 shots he faced and got high praise from Fillo. “That Dawes kid is outstanding,” Fillo said. “He’s something special. He could steal a game for you at anytime. That was the thing … we knew we needed to get him to move.” Steamboat wraps up the preseason at 6-1-0 overall. Ruff said he’s happy where his team is at, but he said there always is room for improvement. Especially if the Sailors want to get to the level of the Rangers. “We are excited about our record,” Ruff said. “We know this is going to be the top team in our conference. What we focus on now is cleaning up some of the little things. It’s working harder to capture the puck and completing our passes.” Sailors hockey pulls out a 3-2 victory against Chatfield December 20, 2008  --   Senior Eric Bonner scores 2 late goals for Sailors Luke Graham - Steamboat Springs If nothing else, the Steamboat Springs High School hockey team doesn’t make it boring. For the fourth time in six games, Steamboat left the second period tied or down. But for the fourth time, the Sailors found the grit and managed to find a way to win. This time — thanks to two late goals by senior Eric Bonner — Steamboat was able to pull out a 3-2 victory against Chatfield despite not playing its best hockey. Bonner scored the equalizer at the 8:10 mark in the third period before scoring the game-winner just 1:12 into overtime on a 4-on-3 power play. “We’ve been known as a team that pulls through in the third period,” Bonner said. “Being down just kind of lit a fire in us in that third period.” That’s an understatement. So far this year, the Sailors (6-0 overall) have owned the third and overtime periods. With the two goals Friday, Steamboat now has outscored its opponents, 16-1, in the third and overtime periods. The Sailors also are 2-0 in overtime play this year. “The guys have the heart and the desire to be successful,” Steamboat coach Jeff Ruff said. “So they dug deep and again pulled it out in the third period and overtime.” Early on, it looked as if Steamboat would skate to an easy victory. Thanks to six Chatfield penalties — including putting Steamboat at a 5-on-3 ad­vantage for 3:17 — Steamboat had plenty of opportunities. The Sailors outshot the Chargers, 18-2, in the period. Still, Chatfield goalie Cory Johnson was more than up for the challenge. Finally, Steamboat’s Ian Anderson snuck one over Johnson’s glove side at the 11:41 mark on a 5-on-3 power play. “We should have dominated that game in the first period,” Ruff said. Johnson’s glove work seemed to spark his team in the second period. It was a reversal of sorts with the Chargers putting shots on net and the Sailors taking the penalties. Ryan Gillespie tied the game at 1 midway through the first when he pounded in a rebound that bounced out of Steamboat goalie Matt Dawes’ glove. Then, with two seconds left in the period, the Chargers’ Trevor Knoll capitalized on another rebound to give Chatfield a 2-1 lead. But in the third, after Steamboat won a faceoff in the Chatfield zone, Bonner ripped a shot from just inside the blue line to tie the game at 2. In overtime, Bonner again fired one on net — this time from the top of the zone — that deflected off a skate and in. “I knew there was a bunch of traffic in there, so I just put one on as hard as I could,” Bonner said. “I was hoping it’d go off someone’s skate, and it sure did.” Steamboat now welcomes No. 2 Lewis-Palmer for a 3 p.m. game today at Howelsen Ice Arena. Ruff knows the Sailors will have to play better if they expect to keep their record intact. “I think the guys will re­­spond,” Ruff said. “They know what they have to do.” Steamboat Sails To Win December 14, 2008  --   Steamboat Springs 6, Mullen 1 By Brian Forbes Special to The Denver Post LITTLETON — Jake Bearss is 5-feet-9, 150 pounds, and doesn't look any bigger flying around on a pair of skates. The Steamboat Springs center, however, plays like a Mercedes-Benz snowplow — lots of speed, handling, agility and the ability to knock just about anything out of his way. Bearss and the Sailors, who all seemed to move with similar skill and power Saturday night no matter their size, started and finished with a flurry to drop Mullen 6-1 at the Edge Ice Arena. Bearss scored the opening goal, added an assist and lost just one physical encounter — he got knocked back a few steps by a Mullen defenseman at the blue line. "He was a lot bigger than me too," he said. "We train after every practice. We really work on our core strength." The surging Sailors (5-0) scored three goals in the opening eight minutes and three more in the final seven minutes. They got points from 10 players and needed just 14 saves from standout goalie Matt Dawes. James Whelihan had two goals, Ian Anderson had a goal and an assist, Charlie Smith assisted on two goals and defenseman Grant Ehrick had a goal and two assists for the Sailors. The Sailors were fairly physical with their forechecking but were even better in the corners. They kept the Mustangs from lingering in the offensive zone by digging out the puck and transitioning quickly through the neutral zone. The Mustangs (2-1), who include players from Colorado Academy, got a power-play goal from Nick Bartos with 2:14 left in the first period. Bartos pounced on a loose puck and fired it by Dawes, on his back after making two initial stops. "I got a good laugh out of it. It was a good goal; it was fun," Dawes said. "I got tangled up with one of my guys. No big deal. Especially with this game, it's all mental." Mullen settled down after Bartos' goal but was forced to defend for most of the second period as it was outshot 11-1. "I thought we were pretty rattled in the first and spotted them the 3-1," Mustangs coach Phil Levy said. "I have a young team, you know, mostly juniors." Mullen goalie Joe Kervitzky finished with 38 saves, including several top-shelf stops, to keep the Mustangs close until late in the third period. Steamboat Springs 3 0 3 — 6 Mullen 1 0 0 — 1 First period — SS: Bearss (Ehrick) 11:35; Whelihan (Smith, Weston) 10:09; Anderson (Ehrick) 7:45 pp; M: Bartos (George, Wiebe) 2:14 pp. Penalties — Butler, M, (hooking) 8:44; Butler, M, (unsportsmanlike) 8:44; Whelihan, SS, (boarding) 3:31. Second period — None. Penalties — Smith, SS, (cross check) 10:15; Fritz, SS, (hooking), 3:05; Wiebe, M, (misconduct), 3:05; Wiebe, M, (game misconduct), 3:05; Rhinehart, M, (tripping) 2:27. Third period — SS: Ehrick (Bonner, Ostrom) 6:46; Winkelblech (Bender, Bearss) 2:56; Whelihan (Smith, Anderson) 2:07. Penalties — Butler, M, (unsportsmanlike) 14:25. Saves — Steamboat Springs (Dawes) 7-1-6 - 14; Mullen (Kervitzky) 9-11-18 - 38. Power-play opportunities — Steamboat Springs 1-for-4; Mullen 1-for-3. Denver Post video at: http://videocenter.denverpost.com/services/player/bcpid1425923351?bclid=1425899856&bctid=4736958001 Steamboat Sailors Win Tournament At Home December 7, 2008  --   By Luke Graham - Steamboat Springs — The King of the Mountain Tournament provided an identity for a Steamboat Springs hockey team looking to find just that. Steamboat capped off a 4-0 win in the morning against Battle Mountain with an 8-4 win against Summit in the nightcap to win the high school tournament for the third time in four years. “We’re well on our way to finding that identity,” Steamboat coach Jeff Ruff said. “It’s the first three games of the season, and we’re feeling really good. It was exciting hockey for the fans. One of the things we wanted to prove is we’re a hard-working team. Certainly, we have a lot to work on, but I’m happy for the guys.” Steamboat won in every way conceivable. The team overcame a two-goal deficit against Aspen on Friday, skated through Battle Mountain and broke a 3-3, third-period tie with Summit with three goals in the first five minutes of that final frame. Against Summit — its third game in two days — Steamboat proved to be the better-conditioned team. Tied at 3, Steamboat dominated the first five minutes of play. It started when Jon Winkelblech had a Brady Bender cross bounce off his body and into the net to give Steamboat a 4-3 lead. Grant Ehrick scored twice in three minutes to give Steamboat a 6-3 lead just 5:32 into the game. The third period “is the hardest-working period,” said Fritz, who finished the tournament with 10 points. “We needed to play, and we did it. We wanted to respond, move our feet and get to the net. It’s incredible. That’s what we wanted to do. We wanted to score a goal quick in the period, and that’s what we did.” After Summit cut the lead to 6-4 with less than five minutes remaining, Winkelblech deflected a Fritz pass in for a 7-4 lead. Bearss added an empty-net goal late for the margin of victory. “I’m dead,” said Steamboat goaltender Matt Dawes, who stopped 101 of 107 shots in the tournament. “I don’t know how many shots I faced in that last game, but I left everything out there. I’m going home and going to bed.” Against Battle Mountain, Steamboat had little trouble imposing its will. After a scoreless first period, the first line of Bearss, Fritz and Winkelblech showed potential to be one of the deadliest units in the state. Bearss started the scoring on the power play early in the second period, when he snuck one just inside the stick side of Battle Mountain goalie Kalen Burnett to give the Sailors a 1-0 lead. Then, in the third period, Winkelblech scored twice on feeds from Fritz to put Steamboat up, 3-0. Bearss capped off the rout when he put away a Fritz rebound at the 12:02 mark in the third period. In the tournament, the Sailors’ top three forwards had 12 goals and 13 assists. “There is definitely some skill out there,” Ruff said of his first scoring unit. “Other teams know they’re out there. They whirl around, and they’re starting to believe in the system. The opportunities are coming.” Although it’s a phenomenal start to the season, Ruff cautioned that the Sailors can’t get too high on themselves. After Steamboat’s previous two tournament wins — in 2005 and 2006 — the Sailors started the season strong before faltering down the stretch. The difference this year, Ruff said, is this team has a passion to play together and improve each day. “I think that if this team continues to progress at the level we’re seeing,” Ruff said, “this team could be dominant.” Steamboat skates to 3-2 win over Aspen December 6, 2008  --   Sailors hockey team opens home tournament with a key victory By Luke Graham - Steamboat Springs Steamboat Springs goaltender Matt Dawes relished the opportunity to face a barrage of shots. In fact, the junior wanted to see as many as he could. Dawes got plenty of opportunities Friday against Aspen, turning away 51 of 53 shots to help Steamboat get a little redemption against an Aspen team it went 0-3 against last year. The Sailors overcame an early two-goal deficit and used a Grant Ehrick goal 3:13 into overtime to come away from the opening night of the King of the Mountain Tournament at Howelsen Ice Arena with a 3-2 win. “I had no clue I was going to get 53 (shots). I’ve never had that many shots and let in that few goals,” Dawes said. “I took a deep breath and was thinking, ‘This is why I play hockey.’ I was thinking this is the exact position I want to be in. Tied game, five minutes to go — it’s the most fun thing ever.” Dawes was at his best in a lopsided third period. The Sailors goalie turned away all 28 shots he faced in the period, including six in the last minute. While Steamboat could manage only three shots in the third period, the Sailors got the best look of the period. Shorthanded and down 2-1 on the scoreboard, Steamboat sophomore Jake Bearss blocked a shot at the point. Bearss worked the puck up the right side before feeding Cody Fritz for the equalizer at the 8:06 mark. In the extra frame, the two teams skated 4-on-4 for more than a minute. Just as Aspen went on the power play, Ehrick found his opportunity. “I had two guys on me in the corner,” Ehrick said. “I leaned into one of them as I was coming around and ripped it. I was just hoping it was going in.” Early on it looked like the Skiers — who opened the season ranked No. 4 in the state — would skate away with an easy win. Murphy Frywald opened the scoring at the 8:23 mark of the first period in when he put home a Daniel Doremus rebound to give Aspen a 1-0 lead. The Skiers pushed their lead to 2-0 early in the second period when they caught the Sailors on a line change. Doremus — who was fifth in the state in scoring last year — picked up the puck on a breakaway and flicked a shot over Dawes’ right shoulder. “I think we out shot them about 2-to-1,” Aspen coach Al Butler said. “Really, you think you should come away with a victory, but they had some opportunities and they capitalized. But I come away knowing they got heart, they got grit and they got determination.” Fritz cut the lead to 2-1 late in the second period after Ian Anderson skated behind the Aspen net and fired one into the crease. That’s when Dawes took over. Aspen had multiple point-blank chances in the third period, but Dawes turned them away each time. “In between the third period and overtime, I told our guys, ‘This would be the most fun you’ve ever had. Overtime in a tournament. Win or lose just play your heart out,’” Dawes said. “I think that just added to the height of play we were on.” Steamboat continues play at 10:15 a.m. today at Howelsen Ice Arena against Battle Mountain. The team then plays at 6:15 p.m. against Summit. SSHS Hockey Relies On Talented Young Skaters November 30, 2008  --   By Luke Graham - Steamboat Springs — The Steamboat Springs High School hockey team is facing a conundrum. Depending on whom you ask and where you look, there are several ways to perceive this year’s edition of the Sailors on frozen seas. Gaze down to the third and fourth lines — which will be vital to the team’s success this season — and it’s apparent the Sailors are very young. But look in net and glance at some of the offensive and defensive pairings, and it’s apparent that Steamboat has the potential to be a top team. In addition to junior Matt Dawes taking over as goaltender — he split time with his brother, Jeff, last year — the Sailors return their top two scorers in sophomore Jake Bearss and senior Cody Fritz. On defense, Steamboat re­­turns senior Eric Bonner and junior Ian Anderson, in addition to Grant Ehrick, who returns to the Sailors after a year of playing Junior AAA hockey. Ehrick was an all-state selection his freshman year and immediately should bolster the blue line. “We’re young, but we’re fast,” Steamboat coach Jeff Ruff said. “We’re playing at a higher skill level than we’ve seen in previous years — maybe not on an individual basis, but on a team basis.” Steamboat should have a pretty good chance to find out how good it is in the first week of the season. The Sailors host the Mountain Hockey Tournament on Friday and Saturday at Howelsen Ice Arena. The tournament brings in Battle Mountain, Summit and Aspen, usually three of the top teams in the state. “We’re excited for that tournament, certainly,” Ruff said. “Talking to coaches from Aspen, Summit and Battle Mountain, I know they’re excited, as well. These are good rivalries. A lot of the kids have gone to camp in the summer together.” Although Ruff said he was excited to see his top offensive and defensive lines together, he said the season inevitably will come down to finding cohesion on the back two lines. If Steamboat finds that cohesion, the Sailors could finish as a top-three seed in the Peak Division. “I just started because of football, but I’ve seen some really good talent come up from the younger guys,” Bonner said. “You never know, but I’ve noticed a little connectivity between guys.” Maybe the biggest thing, at least early on, will be the play of Dawes. The junior spent his freshman year as the backup before leading the team in wins last year. With Dawes’ experience in net, Ruff said a lot of mistakes could be erased by strong goaltending. “As a goalie, it could be a five-on-none, and if they score, it’s my fault if it goes in,” Dawes said. “It’s my job to be there. But we want to be in the playoffs going in with a higher seed. We want to be peaking at the end of the season instead of peaking at the middle of the season.” Steamboat Hockey Full of Family Connections November 23, 2008  --   By Luke Graham -Steamboat Springs — Steamboat Springs High School senior Eric Bonner smirks a little when he thinks about what it was like growing up in his house full of defensemen. Eric, the youngest of three boys, usually became the target for hip checks, body checks, and other roughhousing worthy of 2-minute minors, even, 5-minute major penalties on the ice. Before Eric got into high school, his older brothers, Jace and Brad, had established a legacy for Steamboat Springs hockey. Eric said he remembers going to the games as a middle school student and itching to put on a Steamboat Springs High School uniform. “It was kind of cool to go watch their games,” Eric said. “It was cool to see a high level of playing.” But Eric is just one player in a long line of Sailors hockey players who have followed in family footsteps. Starting junior goalie Matt Dawes sat behind his brother, Jeff, the past two years. Senior Cody Fritz played with his brother, Cam, last year, and sophomore Patrick Weston learned from older brother Michael. “What it does for us most importantly is, they understand the expectations when they come in and try out for the team,” Steamboat coach Jeff Ruff said. “There are expectations. They want to play for us so badly, they understand how hard they have to work. They commit to the program without as much convincing.” Matt and Jeff Dawes might be the most interesting case. Jeff — a 2008 graduate — started in net most of the season two years ago and split time with Matt last year. Matt said it wasn’t by default that the two ended up in goal. “It started way back, like six or seven years ago,” Matt said. “He was playing goalie. I was the younger brother, and with the older brother thing, I wanted to be just like him, so I started playing goalie.” While there was a little competition between the Dawes’ — Matt makes sure Jeff knows he had more wins last year — there also was camaraderie that Matt said he’ll miss this year. When Matt was in net, he’d take every chance he could to go over and talk to Jeff. “I’ll miss his advice,” Matt said. “He played more high school than me, so I’d always ask him, ‘What did you think about that save or that goal that went in?’ It was a brotherly connection.” The connections make Steamboat a close-knit squad, Ruff said. It’s especially important, he said, for a sport that spends a good portion of its time on the road. “Were not like the football team, that has 40 kids, or lacrosse, that has three full teams,” Ruff said. “We have smaller numbers and travel a lot more, so we do try to create a family atmosphere. If we don’t create that team unity, then we don’t have a very good chance of competing.” But although Fritz, Bonner and Dawes soon will end their careers, the legacy of family will continue. Patrick is going to wear his brother’s No. 11 this year, and he said he’s looking forward to playing in a couple of years with his little brother, who will be a freshman when Patrick’s a senior. “I guess it’s a legacy. I don’t know,” Patrick said. “I’m wearing (Michael’s) number this year. I guess I’ll see if I can get that going a little bit.” Spring Mini-Camp Success The second annual Sailor Hockey Spring Camp was a success. Over 47 players of high school age from Steamboat, Oak Creek, and Craig participated in the three day camp which was held on May 13th through the 15th. A combination of skill drills and scrimmages gave younger players a taste of the high school hockey level of play and the coaches' expectations. A special guest appearance by former Sailor and current senior Jake Stanford gave players a good idea of the level of play necessary to compete in the junior ranks after high school. Both Coach Ruff and Coach Strang were pleased at the skill level of the younger players. Our future teams will look good. The Sailor coaching staff will conduct weekly practices starting on June 16th at 8:15 PM, running on Monday nights through the summer. contact Coach Ruff to sign up. Sailors Capture All-State Academic Team Championship April 10, 2008  --   By: Luke Graham-Steamboat Springs — The Steamboat Springs High School boys hockey team is the smartest hockey team in the state. The Colorado High School Activities Association named the Sailors Academic All-State Champions on Tuesday. Teams with grade point averages above 3.2 were eligible. A team champion is declared in each of CHSAA’s sanctioned activities in all classifications. The award essentially means the Sailors had the highest team grade point average of any hockey team in Colorado. “It is a big honor,” Steamboat coach Jeff Ruff said. “It’s something I thought we worked real hard to promote academics along with our commitment to hockey. It shows the guys were up to the challenge and rose to the challenge.” Ruff said academics have always been a big part of his program. He said while he always holds his players accountable and demands the best of them on the ice, everything starts in the classroom. “Overarching all of that is we challenge them to take care of their academics and to take care of school,” Ruff said. “This proves they’ve done that. I’m real proud of the team. It’s one more thing that proves our program is doing a good job.” Hockey Players Collect Honors March 12, 2008  --   Sailors team earns academic all-state By Luke Graham Steamboat Springs — Steamboat Springs High School hockey coach Jeff Ruff could go on and on about what this year’s seniors brought to the team. But the Sailors coach would rather let the rest of the state do the talking. Four Steam­­boat Springs hockey players earned postseason awards, and the team earned academic all-state for the third straight year with a 3.34 grade point average. In addition to the team award, senior goalie Jeff Dawes earned all-state honorable mention and second team all-conference. Seniors Matt Lettunich and Greg Ingalls also were chosen to play in the senior all-star game. The game is at 7 p.m. Saturday at Edge Ice Arena in Denver. The game includes the top senior hockey players from across the state. Lettunich also was awarded the team Hobey Baker Award for his outstanding character. Junior Cody Fritz was named to the honorable mention all-conference team. Steamboat finished the season fifth in the Peak Conference with an 8-10 overall record. The team earned the No. 10 seed in the Colorado High School Activities Association state playoffs. Steamboat fell to seventh-seeded Aspen, 4-0, in the opening round. “We’re going to miss the seniors,” Ruff said. “It was a great group to play with, but we’ll have a lot of guys step in. But I just love working with these seniors. They have a whole different perspective on the season. They were just a good group of seniors.” Schrock Signs Up March 6, 2008  --   By Joel Reichenberger - Steamboat Springs — About the only thing Steamboat Springs and St. Charles, Mo., seem to have in common is that a river runs through both cities, and with all due respect to the roaring spring Yampa, the muddy Missouri River makes even that similarity a distant one. Miranda Sch­rock, a Steam­boat Springs se­­nior, may have found another similarity — one significant enough to draw her from the mountains to beyond the prairie. She found hockey there. Schrock last week accepted a scholarship to play hockey at Lindenwood University in St. Charles. “I’m very excited,” Schrock said. “It took me awhile to find schools where I could enjoy where it was, the environment it was in, the people and the diversity. Everything came into play.” Earning a ticket to Linden­wood was no small job for Schrock. With her father, she created a 30-minute clips tape to shop around to prospective schools. She said the most important step might have been making the cut on the Steamboat Springs High School hockey team. Practicing and playing against a roster of bigger and stronger players every day was a tremendous advantage, one she missed out on as a junior when she tried out but didn’t make the team. “It was a lot tougher. It was quite the challenge,” Schrock said. “It helped a lot. They played at a higher level, and I was pushed to get up to that. “All the guys I’ve known my whole life, so they were really supportive.” Lindenwood, a private university 30 minutes from St. Louis, has just more than 6,000 undergraduate students but offers 40 varsity sports for men and women. Eric Blasé, the Steamboat Springs Youth Hockey Asso­ciation’s director of hockey, helped turn Schrock on to the school nearly 900 miles from her hometown. “I had seen Miranda skate a couple times, and I thought she’d be a good fit at Lindenwood,” said Blasé, who played at Lindenwood while in college. “In terms of her talent level and the advantages she has, being that she has played with boys for the last five or six years, that can translate into success at the college level.” The process might not be over yet, however. Schrock is now well into soccer practice at Steamboat Springs High School. It’s another sport she said she would consider playing at Lindenwood. Overlapping schedules rule out participating in both. While she said she’s committed to the school, she may take the rest of the spring to make up her mind about what exactly will await her in Missouri. “They are about equal,” Schrock said about her affection for the two sports. “When the coach gave me the scholarship, he told me if I were to switch to soccer, they wouldn’t take it away.” Sailors Hockey Loses in Playoffs February 23, 2008  --   By Luke Graham Steamboat Springs — Steamboat had Aspen on its heels. The Sailors were dictating the pace of play and looked like they were well on their way to moving into the second round of the state high school hockey playoffs. Then the third period — and an abundance of penalties — hit. Aspen scored three power play goals in the third period, thanks to two five-minute major penalties by Steamboat Springs High School, en route to a 4-0 win in the first round of the playoffs Friday in Littleton. The Sailors’ loss ended their season. “It’s sad because we had them on the run,” Steamboat coach Jeff Ruff said. “We had them pretty much where we’d wanted.” Steamboat had a goal disallowed in the first five minutes of the first period because of a high stick. But that didn’t seem to phase the Sailors early on. Ruff said Steamboat put chance after chance on the Aspen net for the first two periods. But in the third, Sailors seniors Greg Ingalls and Cam Fritz picked up back-to-back five-minute major penalties, putting Aspen on the power play for 10 of the 15 minutes in the period. “We felt that we were successful doing what we had set up to do before the game,” Ruff said. “We controlled the pace of the game. But we had a couple of over amped seniors make a little mistake. You can’t play when you’re one man down the whole third period.” Ruff said players including Tim Rabbitt, Billy Taylor, Kaelen Gunderson and Eric Bonner played possibly their best game of the year. He also commended senior goalie Jeff Dawes for his work in front of the net. “We really can’t walk away like it was a tragic loss,” Ruff said. “But you kind of have to think we handed them the key to the game. We were dictating the play, but in the end, we can’t take those penalties.” Sailor Hockey Lights up Lancers Steamboat Sailors look ahead to playoff seeding By Dave Shively Steamboat Springs — After a rough 6-0 loss to Battle Mountain on their home ice Wednesday, the nine seniors on the Steamboat Springs High School hockey team were determined to bounce back and close their regular season with a positive stride. So in their final appearance of the season at Howelsen Ice Arena, the Sailors flipped the script, pulling off a 6-0 shutout in their own favor Saturday night against the Liberty Lancers. “Come end of the season, with all the seniors on the team, we realize it’s crunch time and that we need to keep our energy up for the playoffs,” senior captain Greg Ingalls said. That energy wasn’t immediately apparent in a slow first period, but Steamboat eventually opened the offensive floodgates, out-shooting Liberty 40-12. Cam Fritz and Tim Rabbitt both had their chances. Then, after Steamboat goalkeeper Jeff Dawes stopped a fluke breakaway attempt from Liberty’s Jacob Fitzpatrick, the Steamboat defense put the Sailors on the board. First, Alex Palaniuk nailed a slap shot from a foot inside the blue line to put the Sailors up 1-0. Two minutes later, Matt Lettunich slid the puck across the ice from the point to Eric Bonner, who one-timed another outside slapper past Liberty goalie T.J. Hill’s stick side. Steamboat’s “got some pretty good defensemen that shoot the puck well, and they use them,” said Liberty coach Matt Levine, pleased with how his team (2-17 overall) played in its final game of the season. “Without the playoffs in sight, it would’ve been easy for us to pack it in, so I was proud they showed up and worked hard.” In the second period, Steamboat set up camp in the Liberty defensive zone, creating shots but failing to find the net as the Liberty defense could do little more than ice the puck. In one of the Lancers’ fleeting chances in the Sailors’ zone, Matt Butler made a move through a Steamboat seam, but Ian Anderson stepped in to show that Sailors defensemen didn’t just have goals on their minds. With five minutes to go in the second period, Billy Taylor slipped a pass through to Cody Fritz, who sleekly lifted a shot above Hill’s shoulder for a 3-0 lead. Steamboat had only one penalty the entire game, not allowing Liberty any offensive chances and further opening the door in the third period for a full-fledged rout. Palaniuk and Michael Weston’s outside slap-shot goals book-ended a three-goal third period that also had Tim Rabbitt slip a pass through to a streaking Gus Worden, who buried his shot. “We need to go out on a game like this where we are moving the puck well,” Steamboat coach Jeff Ruff said. Steamboat finishes the season fifth in the Peak Conference at 8-10 overall, set for what Ruff said will likely be a No. 9 or No. 10 seed in the single-elimination, 16-team playoff bracket, likely matched up against Cheyenne Mountain or Palmer, when the seeds and location of Friday’s first-round game are announced this week. “We’ll be fine as long as we play with intensity and without selfishness,” Ruff said. Steamboat Springs Hockey Team Likely Scores Postseason Berth February 10, 2008  --   By Luke Graham Steamboat Springs — The Steamboat Springs High School hockey team almost assuredly wrapped up a playoff spot by finishing 1-1 during the weekend against Palmer and Pine Creek. Steamboat lost 2-0 to Palmer on Friday before coming back with a 2-0 win against Pine Creek on Saturday. “We played good hockey,” Steamboat coach Jeff Ruff said. “In six periods of hockey, we won two periods, tied three and lost one.” With two conference games remaining, Ruff said the focus is on winning both so the Sailors can get as high a seed as possible in the state playoffs. “Every conference game is a big win for our seed,” Ruff said. “Our goal now is getting that higher seed. Making the playoffs aside — we’re pretty assured in the playoffs — we need that higher seed.” Friday against No. 5 Palmer, Ruff said Steamboat had more chances than the Terrors, but Palmer was better able to capitalize on opportunities. After skating two periods scoreless, for example, the Terrors netted a power play goal after a Sailors penalty, taking a 1-0 lead. With Steamboat pressing to score the equalizer, Palmer added a late breakaway goal to go up 2-0. Jeff Dawes stopped 30 shots in the losing effort. “We had more quality opportunities than Palmer did,” Ruff said. “But when the chips got tight and the clock started winding down, they picked up the power play goal.” On Saturday against Pine Creek, Jake Bearss scored with three minutes left in the period off a rebound. The play was set up when Cody Fritz drove into the zone, skated around a defenseman and put a shot on goal. After a penalty-plagued second period, Steamboat went up 2-0 in the third period on a Greg Ingalls rebound goal. Matt Dawes stopped 31 shots in the game. Steamboat now prepares for a 6:45 p.m. game Wednesday, at home, against powerhouse Battle Mountain. The Huskies are ranked second in the state and undefeated in conference play. They will come to Steamboat having won 11 consecutive games. “We’re playing with better teams, but we have to play to beat them,” Ruff said. “If we could knock Battle Mountain off — we haven’t lost to them in our home building in three years — we’ll go into the playoffs with a much higher confidence level.” Sailors bitten by top team February 14, 2008  --   Steamboat hockey team overcome by No. 2 Battle Mountain, 6-0 By Luke Graham (Contact) Steamboat Springs — While Battle Mountain weathered its miscues, Steamboat Springs couldn’t overcome its own. In the end, the state’s second-ranked hockey team easily defeated the Sailors, 6-0. Battle Mountain escaped a first period marred by penalties with a 1-0 lead, and the Huskies put the game out of reach in a second period full of Steamboat penalties and sloppy play. It was 4-0 by the time the third period started at Howelsen Ice Arena. “We’re a deep team right now,” said Battle Mountain coach Gary Defina, whose team had eight minutes of penalties and was outshot, 13-7, in the first period. “I have 11 forwards that can play. The hard part for me is giving them all ice time. It’s a luxury for me that I’ve never had in my three years here. We can roll three lines, and if we stay 5-on-5, we’ve been dominant the last two months.” The Huskies scored first when Jonny Stevens threaded a pass from above the right circle to Jacob Lammert, who snuck it inside the left post with 9 minutes, 41 seconds left in the period. That’s when Battle Mountain started to commit penalties. After two minor penalties, Huskies goalie Kalen Burnett was called for a double minor roughing penalty. Steamboat turned Battle Mountain’s sloppy play into several opportunities. Still, the Sailors squandered three odd-man rushes and couldn’t come away with anything in more than five minutes of power-play time, including a 35-second 5-on-3 advantage. “I thought we came out with the intensity we were looking for in the first period and then played back-and-forth hockey with them,” Steamboat coach Jeff Ruff said. “It was a good first period of hockey.” Despite the Steamboat chances, Battle Mountain’s Burnett was more than ready for the challenge. Burnett stopped 13 shots in the first period, including eight on the power play. “I owed it to the team to not be scored on from that point,” Burnett said of his double minor penalty. “We were rock solid after that. It was a huge momentum shift. Glad we got out of that kill and were able to play well the rest of the game.” Battle Mountain added three tallies in the second, one on a power play and the other two in 4-on-4 situations. It started when Stevens sniped a shot from inside the left circle over the glove hand of Steamboat goalie Jeff Dawes. Barrett Chow added a rebound goal two minutes later, and Gustav Philipson scored on a wrist shot just in front of the crease to give Battle Mountain a 4-0 lead. “The penalties kill us,” Ruff said. “They killed us in the second period. Any momentum or good feelings we generated in the first period, we lose by sitting in the penalty box for eight minutes. That’s over half the period.” Kodi Wyatt and Lammert added late third-period goals for the Huskies, who improved to 16-2 overall and 11-0 in the Peak Conference. Steamboat fell to 7-10 overall and 6-5 in conference play. “The difference in any game against Battle Mountain is when they go out to play, they always play to win. They’re like sharks in the water,” Ruff said. “We’ve proved we can be successful against these teams for a period or so. But, again, we need three periods like that first, and we have to stay out of the penalty box.” Skiers Burst Past Sailors February 2, 2008  --   Aspen — Aspen forward Tyler Moore eyed an opening in the middle of the Steamboat Springs defense and charged. He slowed 10 feet from the net and fired a strong shot that sailed wide right. The puck caromed off the boards and straight back to Moore’s stick. The senior converted the second time around, beating Sailors goalie Matt Dawes to give Aspen the 1-0 lead late in the first period Friday night. The puck had bounced Moore’s way. It was a sign of things to come. Moore scored twice more and assisted on one other goal during the first 10 minutes of the third period as the Skiers blew open a tight game. Goalie Alex Owen held the Sailors at bay for the game’s first 43-plus minutes, and Aspen rolled, 4-1. “We’re starting to get the feel of things, and we believe we can win games,” Butler said. “It makes a big difference when you have that confidence. “That third period was pretty solid.” In a game marred by penalties and missed opportunities, two untimely Sailors miscues wound up costing them a chance to avenge an earlier 4-0 loss to Aspen. Ian Anderson was sent to the penalty box with 1:31 to play in the second after a hooking penalty. A half minute later, Dawes was whistled for a delay of game, giving the Skiers a 5-on-3 advantage. Steamboat escaped the second with just a one-goal deficit because of Dawes, who acrobatically thwarted two apparent goals in the final minute. The Sailors were not as fortunate in the opening seconds of the third, however. The Skiers (8-6 overall, 5-4 in Foothills Conference play) spread the ice and Simon Dolginow passed off to Moore in the right corner. Moore took one step toward the goal, then skipped a pass across the ice to Daniel Doremus, who lined up a slap shot and hit the net. Thirty-one seconds into the third, the Skiers doubled their lead. “That really gave us the momentum for the rest of the period,” Aspen coach Al Butler said. Moore controlled a pass from Doremus with 7:45 to play, nimbly avoided one defender then lofted a backhanded floater over Dawes’ glove. A little more than two minutes later, the duo connected once more. Doremus kicked the puck around with his stick and skate and somehow managed to fire a shot on goal; Moore, like he had been all night, was perfectly positioned to play the rebound and pick up the hat trick. “My last one probably came a few years ago — it’s a good feeling,” Moore said. “The key coming out on those shifts is to send a message and get the puck deep.” The Sailors had their chances, thanks in large part to Aspen penalties. Steamboat had a two-man advantage less than two minutes into the first period after tripping and boarding penalties, but generated just one odd-man rush; Owens easily slapped the puck out of harm’s way. The goalie was tested throughout the second period; the Sailors fired nine shots on net and had three man-up advantages. Steamboat peppered the goal with multiple shots from close range with two minutes remaining, but Owen, who fell on his back during the exchange, smothered the puck — and the Sailors’ chance for the equalizer. “He stood on his head and made some huge saves for us,” Moore said. “He gave us some motivation on the bench and picked up our spirits.” And he almost picked up the shutout. Owens sprawled to swat a shot from Cody Fritz with 1:09 remaining and came up empty. Judging from the smile on his face at game’s end, however, Owens was content with another big win — Aspen’s third straight after a mid-January slide. Steamboat plays next at Palmer at 4:30 p.m. Friday. Sailors Skate by Doherty January 27, 2008  --   Steamboat hockey team nets 5-0 win on home ice. By Luke Graham Steamboat Springs — Hockey can be a really simple game for the Steamboat Springs High School team. When the Sailors play their system, move the puck and don’t try to skate through the opposing team, Steamboat ends up with 5-0 victories — like the one Saturday against Doherty. But when Steamboat doesn’t do those things, the result is games such as Friday’s disappointing 5-3 loss to Rampart. “That was the main difference. We were skating with the puck, moving into the open lanes and then demanding the puck back,” Steamboat coach Jeff Ruff said of Saturday’s win. “We were creating more opportunities.” Steamboat got balance from all of its lines, with five players scoring goals and nine players picking up points. Ruff said balance often is the difference between Steamboat winning and losing. “Five goals with five different names,” Ruff said. “That’s what we need to see more of. Last night, we got three goals from two guys. We need more like this than not.” Initially, however, it looked like Friday’s play might carry into Saturday. The Spartans (2-12 overall, 2-7 in conference play) had the first three shots of the game, including a breakaway attempt spurred away by sophomore Sailors goalie Matt Dawes. Dawes’ save at the 3 minute, 22 second mark of the first period seemed to turn a switch for the Sailors. Steamboat (6-7, 5-3) answered with three first-period goals in a seven-minute stretch. The first came off the stick of Cody Fritz, who beat the Doherty goalie glove side for a 1-0 Steamboat lead. Then, at the 6:44 mark, Cam Fritz picked up a loose puck and scored. Less than five minutes later, Gus Worden got his own rebound, scored and gave Steamboat a 3-0 lead. “We picked it up big time,” said Dawes, who recorded his first high school shutout, stopping 22 shots. “We thought they may have had car legs, but they came ready to play. We responded good and came back with more intensity.” Tim Rabbitt added a second-period goal on a Doherty turnover in its own zone, and Kerry Timmerman finished it off with a third-period wrist shot just in front of the Spartans net. With six games left, including four conference games to close out the season, Ruff said it’s imperative that Steamboat finishes strong. “We have to be successful in those conference games,” said Ruff, noting playoff seeding is determined by conference record. “The way we are going to be successful is to play like we did (Saturday), not the kind of hockey we played” Friday. Steamboat next plays at 5:45 p.m. Tuesday at Howelsen Ice Arena against non-conference opponent Kent Denver. The game is a makeup game and was initially scheduled for Dec. 8. Steamboat Hockey Drops Game to Rampart January 26, 2008  --   Steamboat Springs — By Dave Shively - It’s easy to overlook the Rampart Rams. Their coach Josh McIntosh will readily admit that while he has a deep squad with plenty of talent, the Rams (3-3 in Peak Conference play, 5-6 overall) are undersized and extremely young with two seniors and 18 underclassmen. The Steam­boat Springs High School hockey team seemed to look past Rampart Friday night at Howelsen Ice Arena, as the Sailors lost the conference match-up, 5-3. “We played good in the second and the third, but not inspired,” Steamboat head coach Jeff Ruff said. “We need that high-intensity play.” Rampart’s Riley O’Rourke lifted a loose puck over Steamboat goalkeeper Jeff Dawes’ stick-side blocker to break open a 2-2 tie with one second left in the second period. The Rams bench exploded and Rampart carried the momentum into the first few minutes of the third, when a wild deflection on Matt Auila’s power-play slap shot put them up two goals. Down, 4-2, the Sailors had their chances to come back. With eight minutes to go, Steamboat had a 5-on-3 power play but failed to generate more than a single quality shot on cage. “We just got a little too anxious to score. We’ve gotta slow down and think,” said Steamboat junior Cody Fritz, who led Steamboat with two goals and an assist on the night. “We’ve got to go to the net with the instinct to score … We had a few chances, but throughout the whole game we didn’t have the level of play we needed.” As both teams returned to full strength and the Sailors offensive urgency was mounting, Fritz kicked out a puck to Jon Winkelblech, who buried a shot through Rampart goalie Brock Vosburgh’s legs — returning the favor to Winkelblech, who had assisted Fritz on the first goal of the game. Then, with two minutes to go, Steamboat went on a final power play, pulling Dawes from the net for another offensive player to help find the tying shot. Instead, Rampart senior captain Donald Geary broke up an errant Steamboat pass and sealed the win with an empty-net goal. Dawes angrily re-entered the game as the clock wound down, slamming and breaking his stick on the ice in frustration. As time expired, the Rams swarmed their freshman goalie. “Steamboat’s an excellent team — we just wanted to come up here and play well,” McIntosh said. “This was a win we needed.” Steamboat (5-7 overall, 4-3 in conference), returns to its home ice to face Doherty (2-11 overall, 2-6 in conference) at 3 p.m. today. Sailors Hockey Regroups, Gets Win January 20, 2008  --   By Luke Graham Steamboat Springs — It was the intensity the Steamboat Springs High School hockey team was looking for. A day after struggling to find its game in the opening period against No. 4 Lewis-Palmer, Steam­­boat came out quick in a 4-1 win against Pueblo County on Saturday. The Sailors (5-6 overall, 4-2 in conference) scored first, took a 3-1 lead into the third period and dominated the pace of play against the Hornets. Thanks to a team dinner after Friday’s loss and a morning speech urging the team to own its play, Steamboat coach Jeff Ruff said the Sailors played the type of game that makes them tough to beat. “It was absolutely better,” Ruff said. “Our guys, I think they realized the intensity they needed to play at to be successful.” While Steamboat was outshot 30-18, Ruff said the quality of shots and opportunities swung heavily in favor of the Sailors. Freshman Jake Bearss got the scoring started in the first, picking up a puck in front and scoring to give Steamboat a 1-0 lead. Greg Ingalls and Cam Fritz each scored in the second period, with Ingalls stepping out of the penalty box and scoring on a breakaway to give Steamboat a 3-1 lead heading into the third period. Ingalls — who also had an assist — added a shorthanded goal in the third period to give the Sailors their margin of victory. “Those guys were great,” Ruff said of Steamboat’s top line of Ingalls, Billy Taylor and Fritz. “They were a little off (Friday), but we talked to them individually. They regained some focus and played very well for us.” Sophomore goalie Matt Dawes also stopped 29 shots, including a barrage in the first period to keep Steamboat in the game. Steamboat now returns home to play Rampart at 6:30 p.m. Friday and Doherty at 3 p.m. Saturday. Ruff said the games are important considering Rampart and Doherty are two teams Steamboat will battle for playoff position. “As long as we play the kind of hockey we know how to play and dictate the pace, I’m less worried about other teams,” Ruff said. “I’m real confident the guys will come out and be successful and play with the intensity and quickness we did” Saturday Steamboat Hockey Makes a Statement January 13, 2008  --   Steamboat Springs — Steamboat Springs High School hockey coach Jeff Ruff has challenged his players to own their level of play throughout the season. The players seem to be catching on. A week after nearly beating top program Cheyenne Mountain, Steamboat picked up its biggest win of the year Friday night, downing Air Academy, 2-0. Steamboat followed up the win with a 9-1 thrashing of Coronado on Saturday. “This is exactly what we’ve been working toward as a team,” Ruff said. “As a coaching staff we believed our team could play like this. Now, we have to keep doing it.” Against Air Academy — a team that qualified for the state Final Four last year — Ruff said Steamboat dictated the pace of play. Cam Fritz gave the Sailors a 1-0 lead 11 minutes into the second period, when he took a feed in front of the goal from center Gregg Ingalls. “It was a great play by Gregg,” Ruff said. Steamboat scored a shorthanded goal two minutes later when Alex Palaniuk fed Cody Fritz in the middle of the ice. Fritz took the puck on a breakaway and snuck it through the five-hole — between the goalie’s legs — to give Steamboat a 2-0 lead. That was all the Sailors needed, as senior goalie Jeff Dawes turned away 30 shots, including 11 in the third period. “He had an excellent game,” Ruff said of Dawes. “The referees awarded him with the game puck. Anytime Air Academy was really trying to mount some kind of comeback, he did a great job for us.” Against Coronado, Ruff said Steamboat won the game before the first puck had dropped. “They were pretty beat when they were warming up. They were not looking forward to playing us,” Ruff said of Coronado. “We want to be a team that people try to avoid. We want people in the opposing locker room to be like, ‘we don’t want to play these guys.’” After skating to a 2-1 lead through one period of play, Ruff said he challenged Steamboat to not play down to Coronado’s level, but rather to play up to Steamboat’s ability. The Sailors responded with seven goals in the final two periods, with scoring from all four lines. Kerry Timmerman, Cody and Cam Fritz, Billy Taylor, Tim Rabbitt, Gus Worden, Jake Bearss, Ingalls and Palaniuk all added goals in the game. Steamboat continues play at 6:30 p.m. Friday, when the team travels to Lewis-Palmer. Steamboat then plays at noon Saturday at Pueblo. “We’re not going away,” Ruff said. “We’re just going to keep getting better and better each weekend.” By Luke Graham Sailors Fall Just Short January 6, 2008  --   Steamboat Springs — Sometimes a loss can be a good thing — especially when it happens to a team as green as Steamboat against a team as rugged and storied as Cheyenne Mountain. Although Saturday’s 5-4 loss at Howelsen Ice Arena puts the Steamboat Springs High School hockey team at 2-5 overall and 1-1 in league play, the sentiment around the locker room after the game was that this wasn’t just a step in the right direction, it was a leap. “We’re playing at a level right now where we can beat the top teams,” Steamboat coach Jeff Ruff said. “The guys have proven to themselves with the way they can play. It’s a huge boost to our season.” Early on, however, the Sailors looked weary and wide-eyed of the Indians. Except for a Cam Fritz unassisted goal 10 minutes into the first period, Cheyenne Mountain looked every bit the part of a team that’s made the state Final Four 24 years running. The Indians scored three first-period goals and looked like they were on their way to a rout. But Steamboat battled back in the last two periods, at times even dominating play. Jake Bearss drew the Sailors within one goal, at 3-2, midway through the second period when he scored on a rebound. After Cheyenne Mountain’s Josh Holmes made it 4-2 with less than five minutes to go in the period, senior Billy Taylor again brought Steamboat within one when he forced a turnover at the Indians’ blue line, skated in all alone and put the puck in the back of the net. In the third period, Steam­boat struggled to keep five players on the ice. Four minor penalties put Steamboat on the penalty kill for most of the period. Cheyenne Mountain capitalized at the 10:23 mark when Ethan Jervik scored on a rebound. Down 5-3, Steamboat still wouldn’t go away. Bearss scored his second goal of the game from an improbable angle with 1:09 left. Bearss — who was almost parallel to the side of the net — collected the puck on the right side and snuck a shot over Hunter Douglas’ shoulder. “I sniped it,” the freshman said. “It was a water-well shot.” Steamboat’s Cam Fritz just missed tying the game with seven seconds remaining when his rebound try deflected just wide. “We were sick of losing,” said Steamboat goalie Jeff Dawes, who stopped 20 shots on the night. “We finally started to play. No one has their head down. If we play like that, we can play with anyone.” Steamboat continues league play at 7 p.m. Friday at Air Academy. Air Academy — much like Cheyenne Mountain — is one of the top teams in the state and advanced to the Final Four last year. “We knew if we played our best, we’d give them a run for their money,” Bearss said. “This puts us up to a level where we need to stay. We can’t go down now.” By Luke Graham Sailor Seniors Aim to New Heights Team’s senior core aims to eradicate post-Christmas bump in road By Dave Shively (Contact) Steamboat Springs — The Steamboat Springs High School boys hockey team has no trouble starting seasons strong. For the past two years, the Sailors have opened their season by winning the King of the Mountain Tournament, and in the process knocking off some of the state’s top-ranked teams. Last year, the Sailors headed into the nine-day holiday break from Dec. 24 to Jan. 1 undefeated. But then something happens when the new year arrives. “The trend the last two seasons is that we’ll be going strong and then after Christmas, we’ll kind of hit a bump,” said Matt Lettunich, one of eight seniors on this year’s veteran-heavy squad determined to buck the trend. “It’s gonna change this year.” Lettunich said this year’s seniors have set aside time for player meetings to make sure everyone on board is committed to the same set of goals — namely, making it to the state playoffs, winning the first tournament of the year and “to just get better.” Senior Billy Taylor wants to make sure the run doesn’t end there, like last year, in the first round of the postseason. “Not many Steamboat teams, if any, have ever gone past the first round,” Taylor said. Senior Greg Ingalls is confident the crew of seniors can carry early momentum through to the second half of the season and improve upon a 6-6 Peak Conference record. “I think we’ll pull together,” Ingalls said. “Most of us have been playing together for at least 10 years.” While head coach Jeff Ruff noted the departure of “go-to” players Jake Stanford and Grant Ehrick, who are playing hockey at the Junior A and AAA levels, respectively, as well as a graduating class that stacked physical defensive pairings, he believes he now has a collectively stronger and more balanced team. “We’ve got guys willing to do whatever it takes to improve and to raise the bar,” Ruff said. “We’ve got some guys that are hungry.” Ingalls, the team captain and center iceman, will anchor a talented first line of seniors with Taylor and Cam Fritz. The second line could likely feature a little more youth with junior Cody Fritz at the center of sophomore Jon Winkelblech and freshman Jake Bearss, who Ruff called a high-intensity impact player. Of course, the lines will not be finalized until the Sailors open up tournament play Nov. 30 at Summit. Ruff still has some decisions to make with a slew of potential talent to mix between the second and third lines, including Tim Rabbitt, Gus Worden, Kerry Timmerman and Kaelen Gunderson. As far as defense goes, Ruff can rest assured in the foundation of a goalkeeper situation he sees as “truly ideal,” with senior goalie Jeff Dawes bringing the experience and his equally apt sophomore brother Matt waiting in the wings. Lettunich and junior Eric Bonner are the only returning defensemen, but senior Alex Palaniuk, who will move to a defensive role, isn’t too worried. “Maybe the shots and hits won’t be as hard, but the D’s much quicker than it’s been,” Palaniuk said. “What we lacked in speed last year we’ll make up. We’ll be right in there.” Sailors Hockey Back On Track January 5, 2008  --   Steamboat Springs — It took all of 65 seconds Friday night for the Steamboat Springs High School hockey team to shake off the holiday break and its 1-4 start to the season. Playing its first league game of the year against Mitchell, Steamboat came out fast and never hit a prolonged lull in the team’s 5-1 victory. Cody Fritz scored from just inside the right circle 1 minute and 5 seconds into the game, and Charlie Smith added a second tally just a minute later to give Steamboat an early 2-0 lead. “In terms of the game as a whole, it was the start we wanted,” said Steamboat coach Jeff Ruff, whose team outshot Mitchell 36-11 on the night. “We got scoring from all four lines … and that’s what we’re looking for is to get scoring throughout our ranks.” Eight different players picked up at least one point, led by the play and hustle of Fritz. The junior scored two goals and added an assist to lead the Sailors. “I struggled at the beginning of the year, but now I’m getting back into my groove,” Fritz said. “I’ve just got to keep pushing. It was amazing to get off to that fast start.” After taking a 2-0 lead in the first period, Steamboat played perhaps its best hockey of the year in the second. The Sailors peppered the net with 18 shots and controlled the pace of play, not allowing the Marauders a shot for the last 14:12 of the period. Despite the chances, Steam­boat came away with only one goal in the period. That power-play goal came off the stick of Jake Bearss at the 11:38 mark of the second period to give Steamboat a 3-0 lead. In the third period, Tim Rabbitt and Fritz had bookend goals around Mitchell’s lone tally of the night. Rabbitt scored his goal on a deflection in front of the net, while Fritz snuck one over the shoulder of Mitchell goalie Michael Montoya to give Steamboat a 5-1 lead. While the win was nice, the Sailors have little time to celebrate. Steamboat matches up with Cheyenne Mountain — the most storied high school hockey program in Colorado — at 3 p.m. today at Howelsen Ice Arena. “I think we’re going to find they’re going to be fast and a lot bigger than” Mitchell, Ruff said. “It will be a physical contest, but I feel strongly that we’ll do well with this team.” — To reach Luke Graham, call 871-4229 or e-mail lgraham@steamboatpilot.com Ex-High School Hockey Players Move Up November 1, 2007  --   By Luke Graham (Contact) The reality of playing Junior A, Tier III hockey more than 750 miles from home hit Jake Stanford and Jim Terry much like the former Steamboat Springs Sailors used to hit their opposition on the ice. Both knew it would be different making hockey their lives, with Stanford playing for the Bozeman, Mont., Icedogs and Terry playing for the Butte, Mont., Roughriders. How different was what shocked them. Stanford moved to Bozeman before his senior year to live with a host family he’d never met. He enrolled in a school with five times the number of students as Steamboat Springs High School. And if that wasn’t enough, the Sailors’ leading scorer last year suffered his first significant injury while playing hockey, late in the third period of his first game with the Icedogs. Thankfully the injury turned out to be a hyper-extended knee, costing Stanford only two games and a week. For Terry, along with the move and a trade, the realization of the level of hockey came early on, in an incident that’s rare in high school hockey. Terry broke his nose in two places after getting in a fight with an opposing player earlier in the season. But the nerve-raising experiences have had a result both former Sailors never expected. Stanford and Terry are relishing the changes. “I was definitely worried,” Stanford said. “Living with a family, going to a new high school my senior year and leaving behind really good friends. It definitely was a transition I was dreading a lot. But it’s turned out really well.” Well enough that Stanford is playing a wing spot on the Icedogs’ top line. Stanford is playing in the Northern Pacific Hockey League with Terry, a 2007 Steamboat Springs High School graduate. Both said the difference in the game — from Colorado high school competition to Junior A — is substantial. “It’s so much faster than high school,” Terry said. “It’s taking me since the beginning of September, and I’m still trying to get used to how fast and physical these players are.” While Bozeman coach Kevin Stone found Stanford at a Colorado prospect showcase, Terry attended a training camp for the Billings, Mont., Bulls. Terry originally made the team but was traded to Butte before the season. Both young adults are making an impact. Stanford has recorded a goal and an assist through seven games this year. Although Terry hasn’t registered a point, Roughriders coach Chris Shadow said Terry’s leadership on the ice can’t be overlooked. “Every time he hits the ice, he gets better,” Shadow said. “We really like his work ethic. He’s a bigger kid, and he’s always got a positive attitude.” Both former Sailors hope to parlay their experience in junior hockey to the next level. With the age limits for junior hockey between 16 and 20 years old, both have at least two more years of eligibility. The two former teammates still keep in touch, talking at least once a week. Both are looking forward to Nov. 10, when their teams square off. Until then, both said they’re just going to keep enjoying playing hockey at a level they’ve worked so hard to reach. “I couldn’t have any complaints,” Terry said. “I worked the last three years in Steamboat to get here. Now that I’ve got here, I’m just trying to keep up.” Greg Ingalls recieves Denver Post All-Colorado Honerable Mention for 2006-07 season. April 1, 2007  --   Jimmy Terry and Jake Stanford to showcase talent in Chicago March 29, 2007  --   Steamboat Springs — Jimmy Terry and Jake Stanford have played hockey together since the time they first strapped on pairs of skates as Mites. “We’ve always played together, and we’ve always pushed one another,” Terry said. Earlier this month, the two Steamboat Springs skaters joined 70 others from around the state in one of the biggest tryouts of their prep careers. The tryout determined the 21 skaters that will represent Team Colorado at the 23rd Chicago Showcase, which will be held in Bensenville, Ill. on April 18 to 22. “It was an advantage that we were both on the same team for the tryouts,” Stanford said. “I knew what Jimmy could do. We could set up plays and it was easier to stand out.” In the end, both players got the attention of the coaches who selected the Colorado team and both earned the right to play in Bensenville. “The game is much faster. The passes are more accurate and the game is more physical than in high school,” Stanford said. “It’s just going to get faster, and more intense at the Showcase.” The purpose of the 2007 Chicago Showcase, which includes 34 teams from across the country, is to allow high school hockey players who are not normally scouted due to geographic and budgetary constraints an opportunity to compete and show what they have. During the tournament, the Steamboat players are going to be seen by every major hockey institution in North America. “Scouts come from all around the country for this one,” Sailors coach Jeff Ruff said. “A lot of guys try out and they get a lot of exposure from a lot of different arenas.” Ruff said these are the first players from the Steamboat Springs High School program to be invited to the showcase and that everyone associated with the program is thrilled Terry and Stanford will represent Steamboat. “We are very proud of these two players,” Ruff said. “This is a huge achievement and something that doesn’t happen every year.” For Terry, it’s an opportunity to keep playing hockey at the next level. “I definitely want to keep playing,” Terry said. “It doesn’t matter where I go as long as I make it to a junior A team.” Although he is only a junior, Stanford also is looking to make that next step, which means leaving home for a Junior A or AAA team. This was his first shot at qualifying for the Chicago Showcase, and now that he is there, he is hoping to make the most of the chance, even if it means missing his final year at Steamboat Springs High School. The players will travel to Denver twice a week for the next few weeks in order to train with Team Colorado and get to know their other teammates. After that, it’s on to the Showcase, and an opportunity to take that next step. Former Sailor Daniel Coloccia Heads to National Championship Click here to download BOULDER — Twenty-year-old Daniel Coloccia understands the pressures of mid-term exams at the University of Colorado. But he isn’t about to let a few tests get in the way of his love of hockey — or the chance to play in the American Collegiate Hockey Association’s Division II National Championships. “It’s hard. You really have to use your time well, but that’s what it’s like playing club hockey for Colorado,” Coloccia said between classes Tuesday. This week, the University of Colorado sophomore will have to balance his class load with an occasional trip to Fort Collins if he hopes to help the 26-6-4 Golden Buffaloes club hockey team advance to this weekend’s championship game. It’s nothing new for Coloccia, who has spent most of his life balancing hockey and school. Coloccia has been playing the sport since he first stepped onto the ice as a mite with the Steamboat Springs Youth Hockey Association. Since then, he has played hockey with the AAA midget Minor Outlaws and a AAA midget major team in Littleton. He returned to Steamboat in 2005 to finish his prep career as a member of the Steamboat Springs High School team. That year, he was a team captain and was named to the All-State team. This week he will be a part of the Colorado team playing in the ACHA Division II National Championship, a 16-team tournament. If the Golden Buffaloes are to play in Saturday’s championship round, they first will have to win their pool. “There are 163 club teams across the nation,” Coloccia said. “Some of them are weak organizations and others are strong. All of the teams playing this week in Fort Collins will be very good.” Colorado is scheduled to open the tournament against Wagner today at 4 p.m. The Colorado team also will face Davenport at 7 p.m. Thursday, and New York University at 6:30 p.m. Friday. If Colorado advances out of pool play, the semifinals will take place Saturday morning, and the championship game will be later that night. Last year, the Buffaloes entered the tournament seeded 16 out of 16 teams and finished eighth. Coloccia and his teammates have a better seed this year (third in the Western Division) and hope to improve on the team’s 2006 showing. “I think this group of guys is very capable of winning the whole thing, and that’s what we are planning on doing,” Coloccia said. For Coloccia, the club team at the University of Colorado is a blessing. It has allowed him to pursue his degree in biology and to continue playing the game he loves. “I’m happy with it,” Coloccia said. “I wanted to come to CU for the academics. It just so happens that they also have a very good club hockey team.” Steamboat Sailors Hockey Get a FREE Web Site Powered by LeagueLineup.com