Miners, Wranglers To Face Off For RMJHL Title

Posted on March 20, 2017 by Scott Ludwig — Leave a comment

Two teams are left in the quest for a championship. Pikes Peak Miners, dominant during the regular season, and the Steamboat Wranglers will play this weekend in a best-of three series to crown the Rocky Mountain Junior Hockey League champion.

The Miners made quick work of their opponent in the semifinal series, sweeping Colorado Rampage 7-1 and 6-1. Kole Mudra and JP Nolette (one goal, two assists each) and Matty Taylor (32 saves) led Pikes Peak to the easy victory in Game 1. Twelve Miners players registered a point in the contest with the home team outshooting the Rampage 53-33.

Game 2 went much the same way as Dalton Dosko scoring the first two goals of the game. Paul Norris also scored a pair while Erik Anderson stopped 28 of 29 shots in net.

Steamboat had a different path to the finals playing on the road against the defending champion Aspen Leafs, winners of twelve games in-a-row. After the Leafs took Game 1 the Wranglers were forced to win back-to-back elimination games – and that is exactly what they did.

Game 2 was a wild affair that began with a Steamboat goal from Jack McNamara just :31 into the game. Aspen would tie the game just over seven minutes later before the goaltending took over. Despite the two teams combining for 122 shots on net the game stayed 1-1 into overtime. Zack Dym scored the game winner for the Wranglers at 9:57 to extend the series.

Cole Kohut was brilliant in the Wranglers net making 63 saves while his counterpart, Jimmy Grosklaus, finished with 56 saves in a losing effort.

In Game 3 the Leafs scored the only goal of the first period to lead 1-0 at first intermission. Steamboat then would score four unanswered goals while Kohut (35 saves) continued his strong play in net ending the Leafs season with the 5-2 victory.