Pine Creek sinks Steamboat Springs to win 4A hockey state title

DENVER – John Thien didn’t save every shot that Steamboat Springs fired his way, but he did make the big saves when he needed to.

That included a pair on 1-on-none opportunities for the defending Class 4A hockey champion Sailors. Thien turned those away then watched as his Pine Creek teammates netted three goals in the third period to beat Steamboat Springs 6-3, capturing the first state hockey championship in program history.

“I know that we’ve put in the work all season to deserve this win,” Pine Creek coach Christopher Moses said. “It was just sticking to the game plan, no matter if we were up a goal, down a goal, tied, whatever it was, it was just believing in ourselves.”

The Sailors got on the board first, just seconds after the Eagles killed off a Coby Kujawa-Levine head contact penalty. Gavin Wittlinger ripped a low shot past Thien, who had given up just one goal all postseason until then.

Colton Kirk fired a shot into a traffic that got deflected and snuck by Jospeh Nelson to tie the game for the Eagles, then in the final minute of the first, Riley Miltko won face-off, allowing Conley Polsgrove to beat Nelson to give Pine Creek a 2-1 lead.

“I’ll make mistakes every now and then, but I had confidence in my team to come back, and they came back pretty well,” Thien said. “They scored two goals in about three minutes and we were up.”

That’s when the fun started.

A long Pine Creek possession ended as Wittlinger finally pushed the puck into the Pine Creek zone. Behind the play, a line change allowed Sawyer Vietenan to sneak in behind the defense where Wittlinger fed him a perfect pass to net the equalizer.

Just 23 seconds later, Vietenan jammed a loose puck past Thien to put the Sailors up 3-2.

The lead lasted for all of 34 seconds as Henry Hoghaug, Saturday’s hero for Pine Creek, tied the game.

From there, the intensity turned way up for both teams, as did the overall level of play. Bit hits and after whistle activity got the crowd fired up, as did both Thien and Nelson making key saves on 1-on-none breakaways.

“I’m looking at their eyes and stick” Thien said. “If he’s looking at my blocker side, the guy is going to shoot it. If he has his stick over the puck, he’s going to deke, but both times, the guy didn’t have a lot of room because my team back checked. He shot on me and it was an easy save.”

Logan Hemmer scored the eventual game-winner after a puck was misplayed by the Sailors back line, allowing him to scoop it up and sneak by the defenders before ripping a shot on Nelson stick side to beat him.

“My teammate Jack Moats shot it in,” Hemmer said. “It wasn’t anything we were anticipating, but it went off their shin guard and I picked it up and shot right through two defenders. I saw an open shot and I hit it.”

Riley Miltko made it a 4-2 game with 2:55 left then Jack Smetana scored an empty-netter to solidify Pine Creek’s first state title.

While recalling Pine Creek’s semifinal loss a year ago, Moses acknowledged that this championship was for every player that had come through the Pine Creek program.

“We had a video message come put out today, just a couple of short clips from alumni, just rooting this team on,” Moses said. “This is for them just as much as it is for us.”