Mother Puckers settle for third at states

What Aspen’s women’s hockey needed to win the state championship this last weekend was solid goaltending and an offense that put the puck in the net. They had both, but three wins and a tie were only good enough for third place.

Mother Puckers goalie Margo Cuttitta was stellar, only allowing three goals in four games, including an overtime period, for a whopping 0.75 goals against average. The Puckers matched her efforts by scoring 16 goals – so where’s “Stella?” Here’s the recap …

Aspen breezed through division play annihilating Breckenridge 6-1 with the best team effort all season. Beth “Mad Pup” McNichol scored a hat trick and coach Chip McCrory should get kudos here for putting together a power play that blew the Blizzard away.

Aspen then faced Steamboat and it was Martina Navratilova who broke the floodgates open in the second period, scoring off a face-off. The Puckers scored three more unanswered goals in the 4-0 shutout win to advance to the championship round against Vail.

And there’s something about Vail … The two teams battled late into the third period before Vail scored the first goal of the game with just seven minutes left. Determined not to lose, Rachel Dayton tied it with only 41 seconds remaining to send the contest into overtime.

After neither team scored in overtime, the game went to a shootout. It took all five shooters for Vail to come up with a 2-1 win as Tess Ferro scored Aspen’s lone goal.

The single elimination format sent the crushed Aspen team into the consolation final against Steamboat, where Aspen again prevailed 5-1.

McNichol scored five goals in the tournament, Tina Schairer and Navratilova added three scores each, Dayton tallied two and Susie Theriot, Monda Birkholz, Mary Holley and Ferro scored one apiece. Theriot, Navratilova, McNichol, Ferro and Kate McBride Puckett each recorded assists.