The Durango Devils welcomed the one-loss Santa Fe Blue Jackets to Chapman Hill Ice Rink for a Dec. 17-18 pair of New Mexico Interscholastic Ice Hockey League matchups – and the result was evil.
The Devils outscored the visitors 12-1 over the two-day stretch, sending the Blue Jackets back south with twice as many losses as they’d had up to this point of the season.
Landon Sill had a hat-trick to lead the Devils in a 6-1 win Saturday. Robby Grogan recorded his second shutout of the season, and six different players scored in Sunday’s impressive 6-0 win.
Santa Fe (3-3) was known for sharp passing and good team speed, but the Devils were the ones putting on the afterburners. From the opening face-off of game one, Durango applied the pressure and dictated the pace.
Clay Kinder opened the scoring effort with his first goal of the season off an assist from freshman defenseman Jax Bayer. Sill and Jake Beekman scored the next three goals, unassisted, to give the team a 4-0 lead.
Sill’s third goal came after finishing off a nice pass by Nick Picarro to give the Devils even more breathing room. For good measure, Eno Ulshafer showed his two-way skills at the defenseman position with a goal, assisted by Joe Lawton, to cap off the impressive win.
After three more goals, Sill is second in the league with 13 goals, just two behind Odessa’s Cameron Paradiso.
The Devils (6-2) showed no mercy in Sunday’s matchup with a Blue Jackets team that lost its momentum after Saturday’s rout.
Though the result was nearly the same, the winning formula Durango showed in the weekend’s second game was a bit different. The Durango depth was on display as each of the team’s six goals were scored by a different player.
Sam Kidd’s unassisted goal got things started before Ulshafer joined the rush to score his second goal of the weekend and give the home team a 2-0 lead. Beekman scored on an assist from Sam Kidd to make it a three-goal advantage, and the rout was on again.
Everett Howland, Wyatt Killinen and Gus Kidd each added a goal, and Sill had two assists, to close out another successful weekend for the Devils. The only thing left to do for the Durango squad was secure Grogan’s league-leading second shutout of the season, and they did just that.
Durango is tied with the Los Alamos Hilltoppers at the top of the NMIIHL standings with 12 points.
heraldsports@durangoherald.com
