A great night of celebration was ruined when the Battle Mountain hockey team beat Durango on the Demons’ senior night at Chapman Hill last Thursday.
However, Durango exacted revenge Friday night and beat Battle Mountain 3-0 to split the season series.
The Demons improved to 8-6 overall and 2-6 in the 4A Mountain League. Battle Mountain fell to 5-9 overall and 3-5 in league play.
“The kids responded well, they played with similar intensity but they played more within themselves and kept a lot more puck possession,” Durango coach Brian Ensign said. “We focused on the things we had talked about, net-front presence, getting in the goalie’s eyes and just making some smarter offensive entries in place. We had a good showing by Luca our goaltender got shut out and then we had certainly our top two lines contributing offensively.”
Durango took immediate control of the game by scoring twice in the first period and then sealed the game with a goal in the third period. The Demons shut down all four of Battle Mountain’s power-plays successfully.
Durango senior Loudon Doemland scored two goals, and senior Lucas Betz scored one goal. Senior Henry Howe had two assists, and junior Bryson Quimby and sophomore Wynn Daniels each had an assist as well.
“I put that line together a couple of weeks ago, before they went up to Denver,” Ensign said. “Wynn Daniels, Bryson Quimby and Loudon have really been gelling, they cycle the puck really well. Then Loudon is a guy, he's a bigger frame that finds the front of the net well. I think he's had opportunities all year long, but he’s started to see the back to the net.”
Durango will hit the road to play at Crested Butte on Thursday, followed by a trip to Pueblo County on Friday.
The Demons visited Aspen Highlands on Friday, with the boys team placing second out of six teams in the Giant Slalom.
Junior Holden Bronson finished sixth with a combined time of 1:15.67, while senior Ian Fehr finished eighth with a time of 1:18.69. Sophomore Corbin Horrocks just missed out on the top-10 and finished 11th with a time of 1:21.35.
On the girls side, the Demons finished tied for fifth out of seven teams. Senior Annabel Carithers was the only Demon in the top-20 with a 19th-place finish with a combined time of 1:26.86. Sophomore Brianna Tomberlin finished 32nd with a time of 1:32.07.
“The race was great,” Durango coach Jill Carithers said. “We had some really good competition and the conditions were fabulous. It started snowing in the second run for our men. The venue was perfect, there were a lot of qualifiers.”
Bronson, Fehr, Horrocks and Carithers all qualified for states with their times as well as junior Dane Englund and freshman Nathan Mehaffie.
The Durango Alpine Ski squad will head to Ski Cooper on Friday.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
