Vail sweeps 2 games from Aspen Leafs men’s team

The Aspen Leafs men’s hockey team dropped a pair of games last weekend to the Vail Yeti.

The games were played at the Lewis Ice Arena in the Aspen Recreation Center (ARC).

In the high-scoring opener, the Leafs were within one goal of tying the game late in the third period.

Aspen pulled its goaltender for an extra skater with a minute and a half on the clock, but the Yeti were able to score an empty net goal to win 10-8.

The next day, play was tighter, and Aspen opened the scoring early in the first with a goal by Andy Connaroe.

Vail answered two minutes later and then add another goal with 27 seconds left in the period to pull ahead 2-1.

In the second period, Aspen scored twice, and Vail scored three times to bring the score to 5-3

Each team added a goal in the third, for a final tally of 6-4 in favor of Vail. There were a total of 21 penalties called, including matching 5-minute fighting majors in both the second and third periods.-

Geoff Lubin scored twice for Aspen.

Connaroe, Bryan Lee and Eric Ringle each had two assists.

For Vail, leaders were Matt Merritt with two goals and an assist and Jason Bowers with 2 assists.

The two games were the last scheduled home games this season.

In mid-April, the Mountain West Hockey League championships will be held in Las Vegas for the top four teams in the league.

Going into this weekend, Aspen was in fourth place with a chance to earn an invitation to Las Vegas.