A saying in sports is one of the hardest things to do is beat a team three times in a season.
Glenwood Springs made that statement even more true. After beating Durango twice in the regular season, Durango had the answers inside the South Suburban Sports Complex in Highlands Ranch on Saturday afternoon. Durango lead for almost the entire game and scored two goals in the third period to easily defeat Glenwood Springs and move on to the 4A state championship game.
The fourth-seeded Demons improved to 13-6 overall with the win. The top seed Glenwood Springs fell to 16-4-1 overall after the loss.
“The kids were a little tight to start,” Durango head coach Brian Ensign said. “We tried to do things to loosen them up and get them to be able to play their game but naturally things are going to be a little bit more stressful in this environment. We played well enough and we got better as the game went on... Unfortunately, there were a lot of calls, a lot of penalties. So there wasn't a lot of flow to the game but when we could get some flow, it was good.”
Durango moves on to face No. 10 seed Summit in the finals on Tuesday at Magness Arena in Denver.
“You're going to see two skilled teams,” Ensign said about the state finals matchup. “Summit is physical, they're skilled and they're well coached. Obviously they're on a hot streak... I've said this before any team can beat anybody in the mountain division, they're all good skilled teams and hard-working teams and I expect it to be a very good battle.”
Senior forwards Lucas Betz, Loudon Doemland and Brady Holbrook each had a goal. Junior forward Bryson Quimby had one as well.
The Durango defense killed six power plays in the win.
“That was the key to the game, being able to kill off some of those bigger penalties,” Ensign said.
Ensign also mentioned that its an adjustment for the players to get used to the Denver referees and how they call the game compared to the referees in Durango. He attributed most of Durango’s penalties to accidental and incidental contact
Jacob Barlow had the lone goal for Glenwood Springs.
Betz had the first goal with 4:48 left in the first period after Glenwood Springs had a costly turnover in front of its own net.
Glenwood Springs responded with a goal by Barlow with just two minutes left in the second period.
The Demons struck again quickly with a goal from the left side with little angle. Doemland scored the goal with about 1:40 left in the first period to put Durango up 2-1.
The second period was a back-and-forth affair with Durango killing a penalty with about eight minutes left. Then Betz got sent to the box because of a cross-check and the Demons were down 5-3 for about 25 seconds.
But Durango was down two men for an extended period of time because of another penalty.
In the third period, both teams struggled to get good looks and the Demons had to kill a few more power plays.
Durango killed all the power plays and Brady Holbrook had a breakaway with six minutes left but it went over the net.
Shortly after, Quimby deflected junior defenseman Dylan LaBrode’s shot from the point and it went in the back of the net with 5:40 left to put the Demons up 3-1.
The captain Jacob Barlow put Glenwood Springs in a tough spot down 3-1. He was sent to the box after he made contact with a Demons’ player’s head and Durango had a power-play up 3-1 with three minutes left.
Brady Holbrook finished off the game with an easy goal into an open net with the Glenwood Springs’ goaltender pulled.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
