The Summit High School hockey players have some playoff magic coursing through their veins. 

After defeating No. 7 Colorado Academy to advance to the first round of the Class 4A state hockey playoffs for the first time in over a decade, No. 10 Summit traveled to take on No. 2 Steamboat Springs in the quarterfinals on Wednesday, Feb. 28.

Losing to Steamboat Springs twice in the regular season, Summit came into the game buzzing and knowing what it needed to do to keep its playoff hopes alive.

Like the previous two games between the 4A Mountain League teams, the state championship quarterfinal was a heated affair that extended past the 51 minutes allotted in regulation and expanded into two, nail-biting overtime periods. Summit’s endurance and tenacity ultimately helped the team secure yet another playoff victory and advance to the semifinals.

Leading up to the monumental win, the first period began with the teams exchanging possessions on the ice while working to settle into the high-pressure game.

Once both hockey programs settled into a rythm, the Tigers and Sailors rocketed shots on net, which tested each teams’ goaltenders for the first time of the night.

During its first power play of the game, Summit saw two, high-quality scoring opportunities, but Steamboat Springs pushed the puck wide of the net. A few minutes after failing to score on the power play, Summit junior Wyatt Boeckers charged down the ice while on a penalty kill, took possession of a loose puck and fired a shot at the net. 

The shot missed the back of the net by a few inches, but the offensive rush created momentum for the Tigers before the start of the second period.

Wanting to regain that energy, the Sailors pinned the puck in its offensive zone and started sailing pucks at the mask of Summit senior goalie Finn Schroder. With pucks flying anywhere from the blue line to point-blank range, Schroder remained stoic in net, making glove saves and deflecting the puck wide.

After being patient through Steamboat Springs’ advances towards the net, Summit regained possession of the puck on another power play, allowing sophomore Oliver Dixon to put a shot on the pads of the Steamboat Springs’ goalie. 

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Following 24 minutes of fierce, but scoreless, playoff hockey, the Tigers entered the final, 17-minute period hoping to put a shot into the back of the net to stifle the Sailors’ future playoff hopes.

With a firm mission, Summit dominated the pace of play and time of possession in the first few minutes of the third period, recording shots on goal from the stick of sophomore Jevin Palmquist and other Summit players.

The influx of opportunities awakened the Steamboat Springs’ bench, leading to a mad dash to the net, which resulted in an impressive save from Schroder.

In quick order, the action flipped to the other side of the ice when Summit sophomore Karston Kerr exploded from the neutral zone, intercepted a cross-ice pass and slung a shot into the back of the net to silence the home, Steamboat Springs’ crowd in Howelsen Ice Arena.

Summit celebrated the goal for a quick moment before turning its focus back to the game that — unbeknownst to the Tigers — was very far from over.

On the brink of being eliminated, Steamboat Springs turned up its intensity, continuing to deliver hard blows while trying to set up its offense. After a set of shots from Steamboat Springs, Boeckers put the puck in the back of the net off of a rebound shot, but the score was quickly waved off because the goal was pushed off its pegs.

With the game quickly ticking toward the end of regulation, Steamboat Springs grew desperate but found itself on two power plays because of back-to-back penalties committed by Summit. The power plays put Summit on its heels for four consecutive minutes, but the team’s penalty kill — hopping on pucks, getting in front of passes and thwarting Steamboat Springs’ offense — successfully defended the net. 

“Fortunately they ran an offense that was kind of set up behind the net, and they couldn’t crack our kill unit covering in front of the net,” Summit head coach Chris Miller said. “A big focus was not over committing and filling passing lanes. We showed a lot of patience. We were just a couple steps ahead.”

Feeling the game slip away with under a minute remaining, Steamboat Springs put in a last-ditch effort, pulling its goalie to put six skaters on the ice and attempting to get a clear shot at the net. 

Summit prevented shot after shot from finding twine, but a deflected shot with 41 seconds remaining slipped through a group of Summit defenders before drifting past Schroder to tie the game at 1-1 and send the game into overtime.

“Finn kept us in it,” Miller said of the late goal. “If he wouldn’t have played the way he did, we wouldn’t even had been in overtime. There was no quit in this team. It didn’t deter any of these kids, they knew what the outcome of this game was going to be.”

Although the late goal deflated Summit at the end of regulation, the team continued to skate with pride and confidence in the first overtime period. With junior goalie Matthew Tater being subbed in for Schroder due to an equipment issue, Summit began its pursuit of a game-winning, semifinals-clinching goal.

The Tigers had several opportunities to begin overtime, but the ice once again flipped when Summit was forced to fight off another penalty. Coming into the game cold, Tater showed his skill in net, falling on the puck to prevent the Sailors from scoring a sudden-death goal.

As the majority of the ice arena stood on its feet for the beginning of the second overtime period, Summit sprinted down the ice out of the faceoff, pinning the puck deep in the offensive zone. Junior Graham Schuman chased after the puck, gained possession behind the net and then sent a centering pass to Kerr in front of the net who promptly buried the shot, sending the Summit Tigers to the state semifinal with a 2-1 double overtime win.

“It comes down to adversity,” Miller said. “In order to be in moments like that, you have to have gone through some adversity, have ice in your veins and be calm in the moment. The boys understood what the moment meant, the weight of the moment, and they shouldered that weight to get it done. I couldn’t be more proud of everyone on this team.”

Thrilled to just advance past the first round of the playoffs for the first time in over 10 years, Summit can now secure a spot in the 4A state championship game if the team can record a win against Colorado Springs’ Liberty High School on Saturday, March 2. 

The No. 3 Liberty High School Lancers are 16-4 overall and beat 4A Mountain league team Crested Butte High School, 5-3 on Tuesday night to advance to the semifinal. With a win against Crested Butte earlier in the season, Summit feels confident in its abilities to keep its playoff hopes flowing strong.

“We have to establish our forecheck, establish the tempo of the game,” Miller said. “When we play in their end and make the defense pick up pucks on the wall, we can compete with any team in this league. It is about establishing our forecheck, making good decisions, playing a 200-foot game.”

Summit will face Liberty High School on Saturday, March 2, at 11:30 a.m. at South Suburban Sports Complex in Highlands Ranch. The victor will face the winner of Glenwood Springs and Durango.