A successful season for the Glenwood Springs boys hockey team and its band of nine seniors came to an end Friday night in the second round of the state playoffs at the hands of the No. 2 Chaparral Wolverines.

Playing at the Family Sports Center Ice Arena in south Denver, the No. 15 Demons scored the first goal of the night on a short-handed play by senior Ryan Kotz just over 9 minutes into the game.

But Chaparral notched four goals over the next 8 minutes of play to give the Wolverines a commanding lead, en route to the 6-3 win.

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“We tried to battle back,” Glenwood coach Tim Cota said of his team’s valiant second and third period efforts. “But it’s difficult against a team with the skill set of the Wolverines,”

The game grew physical in front of both nets, with several scoring opportunities for both teams but lots of penalty time for the Demons, who had multiple players in the box at various points in the second period.

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After another Chaparral goal 5:43 into the period made it 5-1, the Demons finally had an answer when junior Colter Strautman scored an even-strength goal off the sticks of Kotz and senior Sean Mooney at the 9:24 mark. Kotz then scored on a power play at 14:10 off the dual assist of Strautman and junior Connor Powell to make it 5-3.

But the hole was too deep and the Wolverines too stingy in the third. Chaparral’s Noah Younkin scored his second goal of the night at 3:32 to write the final word.

“Our senior group played its last game in a Demon jersey, and it’s a group that we will be forever proud of,” Cota said. “It’s our family and we battled to the end.

“We made a statement this year and put everyone on notice that Demon hockey is here to stay and here to compete every single game.”

The Demons conclude just their second season of varsity level play at 12-6-3.

Seniors playing their last game with the GSHS emblem included co-captains Ryan Kotz and Jacob Fowler, goalie Hunter Hadsock, forwards Dylan Webster, Kelton McPherson and Sean Mooney, and defensemen Cole Houston, Jeason Brown and Hunter Lohse.

“We wish our seniors good luck to all their future endeavors, and we look forward to all our underclassman working hard and setting goals in the off season to continue competing at a level that this senior class has established,” Cota said.