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Bantam B Black Wins State Championship!

By Staff, 03/13/16, 1:45PM MDT

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Logan Matheny scored with just under three minutes remaining to break a tie and the Bantam B Tigers held off Littleton Black to win the Colorado Bantam B State Championship by a 3-2 final score. The Tigers victory capped off an impressive run of 5 straight wins to win the state title and the Tigers closed the season on a 13 game unbeaten streak.

The Tigers opened the state tourney with a 5-1 win over Aspen on March 4th. The game started slowly for the Tigers and goaltender Jon Swanson made several saves to keep the Leafs off the board in the 1st period. Lou Levy and Ben Skifstad scored in the 2nd period and then the Tigers added goals from Tyler Alldredge (2) and Matheny in the 3rd to break the game open. Aspen spoiled the shutout late in the game and Swanson finished with 18 saves.

Game 2 of the tournament had the Tigers falling behind early to Littleton Red. Alldredge tied things up for the Tigers and then the line of Daniel Vujchich, Austin Vatland and Ben Skifstad went to work. Vujcich scored twice in the 1st and then Vatland scored in the 3rd to give the Tigers a 4-1 lead, while Skifstad picked up 2 assists. Littleton scored late in the 3rd but goalie Marc Godec denied any attempt at a comeback but making several big saves.

The Tigers then faced nemesis Hyland Hills with a berth in the state semi-finals on the line. Hyland had handed the Tigers a 6-3 defeat in February and had been a difficult opponent all season long. The Tigers scored early with Matheny finishing a feed from Alldredge for a 1-0 lead.  The 2nd period proved to be decisive as the Tigers rattled off 4 goals. Defenseman Cody Wilson finished off a long rush with the puck to make the score 2-0 and then Alldredge, Skifstad and Alldredge again scored to make it 5-0 after 2 periods and the Tigers were bound for the semis.  Hyland Hills scored twice in the 3rd but Swanson picked up the win by making 19 saves.

The state semi-final opponent was the Colorado Rampage in a rematch of the CCYHL championship, which the Tigers had won by a 4-1 score.  A quick start was provided for the Tigers when Lou Levy picked the top corner with a shot just 26 seconds in to the game. The Rampage came after the Tigers but Godec, with the help of defensemen Nik Reddecliff, Abbey Kelleher, Josh Clyncke, Josh Mongeau and Cody Wilson, kept the Rampage off the board. Then the Tigers struck for 2 goals in just 11 seconds from Skifstad and Vujcich to take a 3-0 lead after 1. The “Grind Line” of Luka Melnyk, Hunter Elwell and Travis Taylor started the 2nd period and after some impressive work in the defensive zone, Taylor took off through the neutral zone and buried a wrister to make it a 4-0 score just 1 minute in to the period. The Rampage then clawed their way back to make it a close game before Vatland’s empty netter sealed the deal and sent the Tigers to the state final.

In the final, the Tigers fell behind early in the 2nd period before Skifstad finished off a Levy pass to tie things up. Littleton scored again and took a 2-1 lead in to the 3rd period before Levy tied up the game with just over 10 minutes to go. Goaltender Swanson made several key stops as the Tigers swarmed the Littleton zone and pressed for a goal. Finally, a patented Tigers offensive zone faceoff play resulted in the winning goal. Levy won a draw to Alldredge who rolled towards the net for a shot as Matheny went to the front of the goal. Matheny cashed in the rebound and not long after, the Tigers celebrated a hard fought state championship victory.

The Tigers, coached by Dave Mongeau, Nate Clyncke and Pat Kelleher, managed to win the title despite the absence of injured forward Aubrey Woods