VAIL — Battle Mountain hockey is back to its winning ways, overcoming a 3-1 first-period deficit with four unanswered goals for a 5-3 win over Aspen Friday night at Dobson Arena.
That gives the Huskies (6-4-2 overall and 4-2 in the Peak Conference) a season sweep of the Skiers, which is always a good thing, given the rivalry. It’s even more important when it comes to tiebreakers.
After Friday’s action, Crested Butte led the Peak with a 6-1 record, followed by Aspen at 4-2-1, and the Huskies at 4-2. While the Skiers lead Battle Mountain in points, 9-8, the Huskies have handed Aspen both of their league losses and would get the nod were the two teams finish the season tied in the standings.
The Huskies F’s got the team on the board as Bronson Fiore and Garrett Flaagan fed Dillon Flaagan for a 1-0 lead.
The Skiers promptly scored three straight, including a goal by Dominic Lanese, who just kills the Huskies in not only hockey but in lacrosse.
Battle Mountain answered with a three-spot during the second stanza. Seth Nordstrand assisted on the first two with Parker Nash and Jensen Rawlings being the beneficiaries. The F’s teamed up on what would be the game winner with Garrett Flaagan scoring on assists from Dillon Flaagan and Fiore.
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Nash iced the game with a late goal.
The Huskies were scheduled to take on Summit County on Saturday night at the Stephen C. West Arena.
Huskies basketball sweeps Summit County
EDWARDS — Battle Mountain boys’ basketball did a nice job of shaking off a tough triple-overtime loss to Eagle Valley on Tuesday by thrashing Summit County, 72-50, on Friday night at home.
The Huskies (8-9 overall and 4-3 in the 4A Slope) had four scorers in double-digits with Fernando Reyes leading the way with 18 points and Liam McKenny in tow totaling 17. Uziel Olivas rang up 13, while Baker Gentry finished with 12.
Meanwhile, Battle Mountain girls’ basketball kept pace in the Slope chase by bopping the Tigers, 57-22, as well. Not that anyone would be looking at the standings — of course, not — but the Huskies and Glenwood Springs sit atop the Slope at 6-1 with the former holding the tiebreaker. After Friday’s action, Rifle is sitting at 4-2.
Both sets of Huskies will now enter what is known as the Steamboat Springs Phase of their seasons. Battle Mountain’s teams host the Sailors on Tuesday at 5:30 and 7 p.m., and then both teams will do it again up north on Wednesday. The second set of games is the makeup from Jan. 18’s snowout.
Palisade sweeps Devils hoops
GYPSUM — Eagle Valley boys’ basketball showed significant strides during a 66-55 loss to Palisade on Friday night in Gypsum.
The visiting Bulldogs made the second quarter decisive with a 21-9 spurt, but the Devils chipped away at a 33-23 halftime lead, narrowing that deficit to three points at one point.
Tony Hernandez led the Devils (7-9, 2-6) with 15 points, while Jesse Moser had 14.
Pavelich, Harnick win slaloms
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — Battle Mountain’s Gretchen Pavelich and the Vail Mountain School’s Robert Harnick won Friday’s high school slaloms at Howelsen Hill up in Steamboat Springs.
Led by Pavelich, the Battle Mountain girls won the team competition with 171 points ahead of host Steamboat Springs (160).
Pavelich had the fastest times in both runs for a combined time of 1 minute, 24.49 seconds, far outpacing the Colorado Rocky Mountain School’s Jonna Kiilamaa. (1:28.53).
Berit Frischholz and Kiana Brausch, both Skimeister candidates, took third and eighth, respectively, for the Huskies. Lexi Linafelter in 15th was VMS’ top female in the race.
In the boys’ race, Vail Mountain’s Shane Cole and Harnick were 1-2 after the first run, but Cole, who finished second at the Copper slalom the previous week, was a DNF in the afternoon trip down the hill. Harnick sent it in the second run, and beat Aspen’s Reed Beidleman by 1.78 seconds.
Battle Mountain finished third in the team standings led by Max Timm in fifth.
Battle Mountain and Vail Mountain head to Ski Cooper on Thursday for the final giant slalom of the regular season.
