While it may fall into the oxymoron category, it's not a stretch to characterize the CHSIHLseason as a marathon sprint. In the sense that to take home the CHSIHL Spirit Cup, a team has to work hard and play well enough for fourteen games to secure itself a good playoff seed, and then must win three consecutive games.

And every year most playoff games prove over and over again that you have to play all fifty minutes to squeeze out a win. In the case of this year's Class 5A Varsity Playoffs, both Lewis Palmer and Smoky Hill had to call in all their silver pucks just to make it to the title game on Sunday evening.

The Rangers, one of the most talented and veteran teams ever to play in a CHSIHL title game, narrowly escaped the clutches of upset minded Rocky Mountain HS. Fighting back from a goal behind with under three minutes to play, the Rangers sewed up the final game berth on the strength of Mike Fisk's laser shot into the RM net with 20 seconds left in the game for an 8-7 victory in Saturday afternoon's semi final playoff game. Likewise, the Smoky Hill HS Buffaloes, in action at the same time on the Denver Bladium's adjoining south rink, got a late goal from R ees Bernot and a first rate performance by freshman goalie Kevin Dwyer to eke out a 6-4 victory over a strong, well disciplined Douglas County HS team intent on defending their 2007 State Championship title.

So the stage was set for Sunday evening in the great new Inline facility at Parker Fieldhouse, with plenty of fodder for speculation on how the game might go. The teams met twice during the regular season, battling to an 8-8 tie on opening night. More recently the Rangers poured in five power play goals to top Smoky Hill 8-6 in Monument on March 19th. Would the Rangers finish the season unbeaten? Could they, playing in their third consecutive title game, winless in the first two, finally, (to borrow from the ESPN sports lexicon), "get off the schneid''? Or could Smoky Hill, whose 5A and 4A JV teams had earlier on Sunday won their respective Championship games in breathtaking fashion, claim a never before realized CHSIHL Championship trifecta? And who would be the player(s) to make it happen? With some of the league's top offensive players in both line-ups, how would the respective goalies' hold up?

Well, the answer was soon to come and when the game finally got underway, as if in response to the latter question, the potent offenses of both teams forced the goalies to be stout early in the game as LP's Colin Anonson gloved a scorcher off the stick of Jordan Rasumoff and SH's Kevin Dwyer aggressively poke-checked away a legitimate scoring chance off the stick of LP's Mike Fisk. After LP's Mike Friel steamrolled Dwyer in the crease to draw an interference penalty, league MVP Rees Bernot, who lived up to the title all weekend with 12 goals in 3 games, buried a snapshot over Anonson's shoulder to give SH a 1-0 lead 4:29 into the game.

Then, for nearly the next eight minutes and with a full house roaring it's enthusiasm, the game's natural rhythms carried on uninterrupted with both goalies continuing to wow the crowd with strong goaltending in front of their respective nets until LP's Friel pushed the puck into an open net after a neat set up by Nate Westerfield to tie the score at 1. Mere seconds later, with the ever present Mike Fisk following up his own shot, the puck dribbled out of Dwyer's glove and into the crease where Fisk flicked in the rebound to put LP on top 2-1 at 14:32.

LP kept up the pressure, employing an effective crossing strategy to get players to open spots in the offensive zone, and struck again when Keith Yates exploded all alone into the high slot where from the near corner, LP's Nick Galvin hit him in stride and the left handed sniper whistled the puck past Dwyer's blocker pad for a 3-1 LP lead with 12:29 remaining in the first half. Barely emitting a blink, the Buffs replied in kind as Jordan Rasumoff swept in the rebound of a smoking drive by line mate Trevor Smith to cut the LP lead to one at 11:43. After big pad and helmet saves by Dwyer, Smith then evened the score with an unassisted goal, tipping a loose puck past Anonson with 7:07 left in the half. For the next six minutes the teams probed and prodded, after which a short sequence of events transpired to create probably the key play of the game, as it turned out. Mike Fisk, not content to let the first half wind down and seemingly willing his team on, intercepted a SH breakout pass near the left point and with the first half seconds ticking off the scoreboard clock, launched a pass to the right of the creasewhere a wide open Nate Westerfield, pushed the puck into an essentially open net to give LP a 4-3 lead with just 9 seconds remaining in the half.

Having committed the cardinal hockey sin of giving up a goal in the last minute of a half, and momentum being what it is, Smoky Hill appeared to have absorbed a blow they couldn't recover from as the early stages of the second half unfolded. Just a minute and forty seconds in, it was Yates again blasting a puck past a screened Dwyer for a 5-3 LP margin.

Subsequently, with SH killing a penalty, enter Fisk again, setting up Yates for the hat trick and a 6-3 LP lead with only 6:33 gone in the second half. With Smoky Hill gamely attempting to come back, Fisk continued to be an obstacle, blocking a shot in the mid slot and then back-checking another Buffs scoring chance into oblivion. And yet, with just under 13 minutes remaining, Buff hopes were re-kindled again with Trevor Smith setting up Bernot, who deftly faked goalie Anonson out of position and snapped the puck over his shoulder to make the score 6-4. Smoky Hill gamely tried to continue the rally, but frustration dogged the Buffs as Bryce Estes rattled the puck off the crossbar, followed later by a Bernot drive that glanced off the post. Those bad bounces, combined with Colin Anonson's fine glove work and another goal by Yates to make the final score 7-4, helped the 2008 version of the Lewis Palmer Rangers get the proverbial monkey off their backs after three years, and the celebration began.

Down on the rink as the Lewis Palmer team celebrated their victory and post game award presentations were delivered, one thing was very apparent. An awful lot of emotion flowed freely; an enormous amount of joy combined with what can best be described as relief, and a lot of mutual respect for a passion driven, well played game was expressed by players from both schools. As the celebration wound down, and the victory began to sink in, Lewis Palmer Head Coach Bruce Clark, who earlier in the day had received the Coach of the Year Award, was asked how he felt. Replying with some difficulty, Clark said, "Totally emotional. Drained. We probably played our best game of the year. And we had to play our best game to beat Smoky Hill. They're always a tough team to play against. Pete's a good coach and it shows".

Continuing, Clark observed, "It's been a long year. The guys have put in a lot of practice time, what with the ice season and the inline schedule. It's been pretty demanding for everybody involved with the team...and it's been doubly challenging because after being in the Championship the last two years, nothing less than a return to the Championship game would have been acceptable." LP assistant coach Mike Fisk Sr., added, "It's been a long time coming. I feel like a thirty pound weight just fell off my back!" Mike Fisk Jr., asked how he felt, replied,"Gooood...really, really gooood"! On the other side of the rink, Smoky Hill Coach Pete Sarnataro commented, "Smoky Hill played the best game they could have played...we got beat by a very good team that deserved to win".

With that, another successful season is in the books for the CHSIHL. Despite plenty of challenges ahead to keep the league solvent, solace should be taken in the impressive showings by teams from some of the newer schools like Cherokee Trails and Mountain Vista, who won the 4A Continental Championship and 5A runner up, respectively. Not to mention one of the league's charter teams, Smoky Hill, who after a couple of down years, returned this season with a vengeance, taking home Championships in JV 5A and 4A, and the runner up in Varsity. And next year's right around the corner!