Resurrection Christian hockey makes Frozen Four return

The awkward feeling at the start, the one which existed as a roster adjusted to new faces and roles, is gone. So is the memory of a 2-3 start to the season.

Now, Resurrection Christian has firmly established itself as one of the best hockey teams in the state, accentuated with Saturday’s 3-1 victory over Valor Christian at NoCo Arena. The sweet part about that 16th consecutive win is it sends to the Cougars to the final four of the state tournament for the first time in four years.

“The funny thing is at the beginning of the year, we were not clicking like we are now,” goalie Berg Lebahn said. “Everyone has a role now, and everybody knows their role and everyone is doing their role, and that’s why we’ve gone on our win streak. Now that we’re on it, we’re confident going into this final four and just super excited, super stoked, feeling unstoppable.”

The Eagles were the team who put an immediate fire in the game with a ramped-up intensity, but once that initial surge was gone, it was the Cougars who proved to be the team in charge by controlling the corners, beating their foe to pucks, making the big checks and creating chance after chance (31 shots) while limiting the guests (just nine).

“That’s why we just throw pucks at the net a lot,” Rez coach Jake Pence said. “Anytime you score a goal, it gets guys fired up. Or if we get a big hit, guys get fired up. So we were trying to look for those sparks and maintain those things all night.”

As was the case in the quarterfinals, the offensive jolt came from defenseman Blake Baer. With Rez on the power play, Baer took a pass at the line, deked an Eagle and stormed the net.

Coming from goalie Jack Kuzia’s right, he sliced to the crease and slid the puck past a pack of bodies that had gathered. The puck was in, but it took a second for the officials to regroup and declare the first goal scored.

It was Baer’s ice-long charge Friday that opened the flood gates, and with his background as a forward, he’s proven rather adept at picking his chances and making the most of them. Pence said Baer has earned a green light, combining his offensive nature with the fact he can see the ice so well and read the landscape.

“If it happens, I just try to help my team out in any way I can,” Baer said. “I feel like I’m definitely good at it, cause last year I played offense, and the team really needed me to play defense and I rush the puck up when I can.

“I cut back, kinda jumped over the goalie a little bit and it was a scrum. Everybody whacked at it and it went in.”

Rez pushed the lead to 2-0 on another power-play goal in the second, with Kolby Donovan redirecting a shot from Baer, with an assist going to AJ Buckner, who would get credit for a helper on all three Cougar tallies.

It was the only scoring of the period, though Valor Christian was set up for chances. The Eagles had two-man advantages on the power play at the beginning and again at the end of the period, but in both instances, it was the Cougars who had the better scoring chances.

Lebahn didn’t face many shots, but he had a couple of big saves, and the one goal he gave up he credited to himself. Luke Lonneman created a chance off a turnover, and as Lebahn fumbled with the initial save, he helped push it back himself as Spencer Corley took a stab at it, getting credit for the score.

That came with 7:18 remaining in the contest, but while the score was tighter, the Cougars weren’t really feeling the pinch, not with the way they were playing defensively.

“It’s not just our defensemen, it’s our team defense, knowing that if pucks come out of our zone, we’re sprinting back and playing a really hard 200-foot type of game,” Pence said. “And that’s been the key for us to just move forward in tight games like this.”

Valor pulled Kuzia in the final minute, and Rez capitalized with an empty-net goal from Kyle Lindholm with just 30 seconds remaining, starting the celebration early.

Now, with the Frozen Four moving to the University of Denver starting Friday, the Cougars are most definitely a different bunch, a confident bunch, but not a team losing perspective.

“I mean, you’ve got to be humble, you’ve got to enjoy it,” Baer said. “Enjoy it for a little bit, but then it’s back at practice Monday morning. We’ve got to work hard.”

Mike Brohard: 970-635-3633, mbrohard@reporter-herald.com or twitter.com/mbrohard

Cougars 3, Eagles 1

At NoCo Arena

Valor Christian 0 0 1 — 1