Bantam A's having banner year

The Summit Bantam A hockey team has earned the No. 1 position in the 11-team, CDYHL league. The Bantams' current record is 18-0 in league play and 27-1-3 overall. Team scoring leaders include George Gruber, Dak Dice, Dylan Junkermeier, Evan Streit and Billy Grossheusch. Mitchell Stashik, Ian McCluskie, Drake Blass and Curtis Dankof have also added offensive support.

The Bantam A's won the Kingdom Cup in October, finished second in the November Fall Faceoff in Aspen (allowing 1 goal in 4 games) and third in the Highland Cup in December (without a loss).

In 34 games, only 20 goals have been scored on goalie Phillip Contos, who has been protected by the strong defense of Kyle Metzger, Rudi Baldwin, Dylan Horan, Mac Pitts and Bobby Ruddle. The defense has also scored consistently with hard slap shots from the blue line.

The Bantam A's travel to Greeley to play the Renegades on Feb. 9, then head to Denver for the Arvada Winter Fest in mid February. The State Playoffs are set for the first two weeks of March.



Peewee As lose 5-4 to undefeated Greeley

The Summit Hockey Peewee A team lost to the 10-0 Greeley Renegades 5-4 on Saturday.

The Renegades scored within the first 30 seconds of the game, then Riley Hillis, assisted by Jack Nevicosi and Luke Egging, scored Summit's first goal. Later, scramble evolved in front of the Renegade's net and Nevicosi was able to poke the puck in to end the first period 2-2.

The second period saw a single goal from each team with Brock Stashick, assisted by Sean Farley, scoring to keep Summit in the game at 3-3 after two periods. The Renegades scored two goals in the third period and Summit found itself having to play catch up. Hillis, assisted by Peter Grotemeyer and Blake Horan, scored with :20 left, but the team ran out of time to convert an equalizer.

"The kids played an incredible game considering this team beat us 9-0 when we played them earlier this month" Pewee coach Dan Kirby said, "I am proud of the way they played as a team and they never gave up."

Reiker Edstrom was in goal for the Summit team and fended off 12 of 19 shots. The peewee team will head into its last two league games of the season next weekend against Denver Country Club. They Peewee A's will need to win next weekend and have a little help from some of the other league teams to keep their playoff hopes alive.



U12 girls celebrate second win

The Summit Lightning U12 girls hockey team is now 2-7-1 following recent games against the Colorado select team and Gunnison.

Summit dug deep for their second win of the season against the Colorado Select White team in Littleton. Katy Peoples put the puck in the net during the first period for an early lead. Center Ellie Dice scored another goal late in the game to take the girls to their second victory of the season. Summit Lightning fell to the Colorado Select Blue team later the same day, 6-0.

This past weekend, the Summit girls battled Gunnison in the frigid cold losing the first game (0-1) and hanging tough for their first tie (0-0). While Summit's offense was unable to get the puck into the net, defenders Morgan Courtney, Maddie Neumeier and Emily Burch were unyielding.

Other players contributing to the team's success included Rachel Fitch (goalie), Emily Carlson, Terah Edstrom, Hannah Markel, Cait McCluskie and Megan Rose. The Summit Lightning U12 hockey team is looking forward to the Adele Dombrowski hockey tournament in Steamboat this weekend.