Douglas County wins 2 in final CHSIHL weekend; Lewis Palmer finishes season unbeaten; final 5A State Playoff seeds set

In the final weekend of the season several Class 5A teams were in do or die situations. One team, the Huskies from Douglas County, found themselves in a position where depending upon how they played, they could crash to the bottom or vault to near the top of the Class 5A State Playoff seeding by virtue of the schedule gods dealing them a doubleheader weekend to wind up the season.

So it was that on Saturday evening at the Bladium in Denver, the first obstacle for the Huskies was the always tough Front Range Academy team. With Devon Sherwood guarding the net the Huskies would have to be at the top of their game to come out on top. Conversely, as evidenced by their league low 53 goals against, the Huskies know how to keep the puck out of the net, too. DC really took the play to FR in the early going but true to form, Devon Sherwood made big saves on Huskies' Skylar McKnight and Alex Vlahinos to keep DC off the scoreboard. And again, true to form, Huskies goalie Jonathan Fritts, last season's Class 5A Championship winning goalie, stood tall against FR's Zach Fleming, stopping him on big shots from the right face-off circle and with the glove from the mid-slot area. Then with 8:15 remaining, one of the league's deadlier duos, Brad Conover and Skylar McKnight converted on a bang-bang passing play to put DC in the lead 1-0. Just over two minutes later, FR's Fleming again demonstrated his great playmaking ability to set up Lukas Dreux for an easy tap in to tie the score 1-1 with 6:30 left in the first half. With the momentum changing, FR continued to apply heavy pressure in the DC zone and with 4:17 in the half, Derrick Thompson poked in a rebound off a shot by Jamal Atta to move FR ahead 2-1. FR went on the PP at 1:59 and Fritts stopped Paul Solis point blank and the first half ended with FR holding the 2-1 lead. Early in the second half, the Huskies started to make their bid for a comeback win. Again it was Skylar McKnight off a good lead pass from Sam Bruns beating Sherwood five hole to tie the game just 1:21 into the second half. With the outstanding goalies swapping save for save, it was clear that the next goal would be key. And when you get a goal against Devon Sherwood, you have to make a pretty good shot. And Huskies defenseman Nick Ramsey made a great shot from the right face-off circle, uncorking a snap shot over Sherwood's left shoulder just under the crossbar in the upper left-hand corner of the net. The goal put DC on top 3-2 with 13:20 left in the game. The goalies shut the door for the rest of the game, with Sherwood holding off DC during a two man advantage and Fritts again coming up big against Fleming and Max Sjeda late in the game and the Huskies walked out of the Bladium with a hard earned and badly needed one goal victory. Husky Coach Bob Davis noted, "Wow...their goalie was something...he really stood up in there...it was definitely a goalie game. Winning this game put us in a real good position to maybe get as high as the second or third seed I think....but we have to show up tomorrow and play like we did today against Highlands Ranch. They played a good game last week". Front Range Coach Jon Sjeda lamented, "Boy, that's really disappointing. We had a lot of chances again. I just hope we didn't drop ourselves completely out of the playoffs...I think there was a scenario that had us getting the 8 th seed or even out of the playoffs completely. Guess we'll have to see."

And so Sunday afternoon on their home rink at Parker Fieldhouse, the Huskies would have the opportunity to live up to their fans and coaches hopes. They took the rink against a Highlands Ranch team that had risen up to stun a strong Rocky Mountain team with a 6 goal second half on Easter Sunday to register their first victory of the entire season. But the role of spoiler didn't fit the Falcons, at least on this Sunday afternoon. The game was all Douglas County. With Nick Ramsey contributing a five point game and Jonathan Fritts registering his first shutout of the season, the Huskies won going away 7-0, and in the process succeeded in vaulting themselves into the second overall seed for the State Playoffs.

Other games with implications on playoff positions included a barnburner between Lewis Palmer and Mountain Vista. Having clinched the top spot some weeks ago the Rangers immediate goal was to stay unbeaten. And they were well on their way to doing so with a 6-3 lead when Mountain Vista mounted a penalty fueled rally to come back and tie Lewis Palmer with standout MV forward Kyle Brooks coming up with two late goals to tie the Rangers 6-6 for the second time this season. The tie, combined with a Front Rage loss, pushed MV past Front Range and up to the 6 th seed in the upcoming playoffs. Gaining the third playoff seed, Smoky Hill finished the season with a tough 5-2 win over Eaglecrest, and despite a great effort by Raptor goalie Isaiah Runyon, Smoky sniper Rees Bernot scored enough points to barely edge out Horizon's Wes Schaeffer and LP's Mike Fisk to win the league scoring title. The Horizon Hawks topped the undermanned Cherry Creek Bruins 9-3 to garner the 4 th playoff position. Rocky Mountain put the finishing touches on a fine season with a 5-2 decision over Fort Collins to gain the 5 th playoff spot. And the Chatfield Chargers overwhelmed the Rebels from Columbine 11-4 to wrap up the 8 th and final seed in the State Playoffs that begin this coming Friday evening at the Bladium in Denver, culminating with the 5A State Championship game at 8:00 pm Sunday evening at Parker Fieldhouse. Who will be the last team skating with the State Camp trophy? Come out and see what promises to be some great Inline action over the three night weekend. The final standings of follow