Much like the Summit High School girls basketball team, the Summit hockey team has had an extremely challenging start to the 2022-23 season

In the team’s first three games of the season, Summit has faced three 5A teams, all of which made it to the 5A state playoffs last year. 

The young Summit hockey team has hung tough against Chaparral, Cherry Creek and Monarch High Schools but has failed to muster a win against the three historically polished and deep hockey programs. 

Summit lost its first game of the season at Stephen C. West ice arena to Chaparral High School on Dec. 3. Summit played well as a team in the early parts of the game, but in the end lost to last season’s 5A state hockey quarterfinals qualifiers by a score of 5-2.

After close to two weeks of practice and preparation, Summit traveled to the Denver area to take on last season’s No. 9 seed in the 5A state playoffs — Cherry Creek High School — on Friday, Dec. 16.

Like the Chaparral game, Summit looked sharp in the first period of play. Heading into the first intermission, the game was tied at 1-1. In the second period, however, Cherry Creek upped its intensity to put the game out of reach for Summit. Summit’s defense allowed four goals to find the back of the net in the second period while the Summit offense failed to score a goal.

The high-scoring second period shocked Summit, and the Tigers failed to muster a comeback in the final period of play. Summit lost 6-1 to fall to 0-2 overall on the season.

The next afternoon Summit was back on the Front Range to take on Monarch High School. Summit played better as a team against a 4-0 Monarch Coyotes hockey team but still allowed a total of 6 goals.

Summit trailed 4-1 after the first period but went on to match Monarch in the second period. In the end, Summit dropped to 0-3 on the season with a 6-3 loss.

Despite the loss, Summit proved to be one of the biggest challenges Monarch has faced so far this season.

Monarch’s game against Resurrection Christian on Dec. 10 is the only game the Coyotes have played that was decided by a single goal. Outside of the Resurrection Christian game, every other game has been decided by three or more goals including the Summit game.

Summit will now prepare for the start of its 4A Mountain League schedule. Summit will face a 1-3 Durango High School hockey team in Durango on Friday, Jan. 6, 2023. The puck drop is scheduled for 5 p.m.