JACKSON, Wyo. — The Jackson U18 Moose played a near-flawless game against Pinedale to win state on Sunday morning.
The final score is a bit misleading. It was closer than 7-2 and it wasn’t really the offense that won it for Jackson as they clinched the state title just as the Jackson girls did so a week ago.
To get to Sunday’s championship game, Jackson first had to eke one out over top-ranked Gillette. The Moose blew a 2-goal lead only to come back with a pair of their own in the 3rd period to seal a 4-3 win over the Wild.
Second seed Pinedale had a nail-biting journey of their own to get to championship Sunday. After dismantling Riverton 6-0, Pinedale needed overtime to slip past the Casper Oilers 5-4 to earn a date with Jackson.
State title matchup
During the regular season, Jackson had beat Pinedale 4-2 and managed a 3-3 tie in their only other matchup. After that tie on January 25 Jackson ripped off four straight wins to start state tournament play.
Pinedale came into championship play as the division’s highest scoring team, scoring at a clip nearly twice that of Jackson. They had also surrendered the fewest goals of any team all season: 45. But Pinedale also takes a ton of penalties and Jackson does not.
Sunday, Sunday, Sunday
It doesn’t sound flashy but it was discipline and conservative game play that won it for Jackson Sunday. The boys showed every sign of being coached up well—they made smart decisions with the puck, they were patient, and they kept turnovers to a minimum. Above all, the Moose never lost their composure and they dictated the flow of the game by playing sound hockey.
Both teams kept things simple in the opening frame, neither wanting to create an odd-man rush with a mistake. Jackson goalie Ben Delaney was sharp when he had to be but didn’t see much action in the 1st period as the Moose played a tight-checking game.
Finally, with less than five minutes left in the period, Moose defenseman and team captain Rowan Wuerdemen made a nifty move to avoid a Pinedale defender and drilled a wrister stick-side high past Pinedale netminder John Mitchell to open the scoring.
The play happened just minutes after Delaney made a big stop on a Grade A scoring chance off the stick of Justin Morgan when he got free after Moose defenseman Colin Reese overskated a loose puck.
Wuerdemen’s goal, his first of the playoffs, gave Jackson the spark it needed. The Moose pinned Pinedale in their own end with sustained pressure before Will Kucera pounced on a rebound off a Noah Luense shot to make it 2-0.
Through the first two periods, Jackson survived five minor penalties and a 5-minute kneeing major taken by John Dwan. They killed them all off with Delaney barely being tested.
Both teams traded punches for a fairly evenly played 2nd period until Jacob Crabtree deflected a Dwan shot from the point on the power play to make it 3-0 Jackson. The rout was on, right? Not quite yet.
Pinedale came out in the 3rd prepared to turn things around. Pinedale’s Micah Crum beat Delaney off a rebound from a Kaden Irey shot just 17 seconds into the final period to make things interesting.
Pinedale fed off the energy and began asserting themselves, physically. They had Jackson on their heels for the next few minutes, pinning the Moose in their own end, quicker to loose pucks and winning one-on-one battles.
Jackson weathered the pushback, however, and a goal by Max French at the 5:45 mark was a huge relief for the hometown crowd. Pinedale kept pace with a beautiful backhander from Boyd Boylan that beat Delaney on the far side in the only spot it could have got past him.
With the score at 4-2, Pinedale picked up their physical play. Ten minor penalties were whistled in the 3rd period alone, including the second ejection of a Pinedale player for a ‘head contact’ hit.
With a little over five minutes to play in the game, Delaney made his biggest save of the morning against and, as often happens in hockey, the puck wound up heading the other way on the stick of the speedy Luense who put a fork in Pinedale with a goal to make it 5-2.
From there it was garbage time. Two more late goals from Jackson and 20 more minutes in penalties made the final minutes tick by slowly.
Final score: Jackson 7, Pinedale 2.
