The Demons played three games in the last week of January, traveling to the front range with stops in the mountains before finishing the weekend at home. 

Glenwood went 2-1 over the weekend, improving to 11-2-1. On Tuesday, they started their journey with a dominating 10-1 win versus Air Academy. They returned home before hitting the road on Friday to face a league opponent: the Steamboat Sailors. The Demons fell into an early hole too deep to dig out of, losing 5-3 on Friday. Glenwood came back strong against the Kent Denver Sun Devils on Saturday afternoon with a 6-3 home victory, scoring four in the third period to send the Devils back to Denver. 

The Demons started the week on the road, visiting the 0-12 Air Academy Kadets in Colorado Springs. The game on Tuesday night was held in the gorgeous Cadet Field House at the Air Force Academy. The Demons didn’t wait long to take the lead inside the picturesque rink. They entered the first intermission with the scoreboard reading 4-1. Glenwood scored three goals in the final two periods, bringing the final tally to 10-1. 

Brothers Jett and Beck Weatherred accounted for half the goals in Tuesday night’s victory. Senior co-captain Jake Barlow and junior Chase Pennell netted two, and sophomore Luke Phillips scored his first goal of the season. Senior goalie Marek Senn only faced eight shots in the win. 

The Sailors came out swinging at home, taking a two-goal lead in the first period that Glenwood couldn’t overcome. A solid second and third period wasn’t enough for the Demons, and an empty net goal for the Sailors put the game out of reach late. The Demons put in one in the second and two in the third, but the Sailors mimicked Glenwood’s goal total in the final two periods. Two of the three goals Glenwood scored came on their powerful power play. 

“It was their senior night,” head coach Tim Cota said. “We knew we were going into a hostile environment. We needed to be able to counter that, and we weren’t. They scored two in the first and got a quick one in the second. I liked how we fought back, but at that point, you’re down 3-0 in their home barn. It makes it tough. We have to be better.”

Juniors Jacob Roggie and Lucas Chartier both scored one, along with the senior Jett Weatherred, in the loss. 

The Demons didn’t have time to hang their heads, needing to flip a U-turn and head back to Glenwood to prepare for Kent Denver the next day. 

The Demons came out white hot against the Sun Devils on Saturday afternoon. Most of the first period was spent in the Demons attacking zone. Glenwood took a 1-0 lead early after junior Grayson Alcorta sent a wrist shot at the net from the point. The puck ricocheted off the goalies’ blocker into the air, meeting senior co-captain Ian Cole’s stick in mid-air on its way down, redirecting over the goal line and into the net.

Glenwood doubled their lead just four minutes later when the puck shot out of the Demons defensive zone, through the neutral zone, and into the Sun Devils area. Junior Ryan Rigney noticed how lazy the Kent Denver defender was playing, so he turned on the jets and picked his pocket. Rigney had a clean shot and didn’t miss, making the crossbar sing before the puck fell behind the goalie. 

The Demons could have put it out of reach in the second but couldn’t make good use of their prestigious puck possession. The Sun Devils scored with five minutes remaining in the second. Kent Denver set up a play behind the net on the man advantage. They generated an odd-man rush, cleaning up the rebound and cutting the lead in half. 

“The second wasn’t a great period,” Cota said. “We forechecked well, but the finishing wasn’t there. It was only 2-1 after the second, and they were still hanging around. Although we had the puck possession, there were question marks for me surrounding what we were doing with that time.”

“We just had to trust the process in the third period,” assistant coach Joe Luetke added. 

The third was a reiteration of the first period. The Demons dominated the puck possession and kept the pedal on the metal. Jett scored three minutes into the third period on a shot from the high slot, then three minutes later, repeated the process. The Demons’ offensive pressure during the third period suffocated the Sun Devils. Kent Denver started to rely on sending a cherry picker out of the zone, hoping to throw a wrench into their routine of icing the puck after getting tired. 

It worked once. The Sun Devils connected with their sneaky forward, who pushed it past Senn on the breakaway with seven minutes left, bringing the score to 4-2. Barlow didn’t appreciate the bush league strategy and canceled out the goal literally 15 seconds later. Cole won the face-off to junior Brayden Dacuma, who took the puck into the zone and behind the net, finding Barlow uncovered, and switched the scoreboard to 5-2. Barlow lit the lamp twice on the same shift. After resetting at center ice, the Demons stayed on the attack. The puck danced around Demon to Demon before it found itself on the tape of Barlow in the same position. Barlow beat the goalie over his blocker and celebrated while staring down the Sun Devils bench. 

Kent Denver tacked on one more goal with the seconds ticking off the clock after the Demons took a questionable penalty with less than two minutes remaining. 

Glenwood finally gets a rest after their jam-packed January schedule. The Demons have not gotten a full week of practice since the new year, and Cota is ecstatic about the opportunity to retighten the screws. 

“We have been on the road all of January,” Cota said. “We can’t wait to be here. I’m glad we’re here in our home barn (to close out the season). All the small mountain towns have a great atmosphere, so we need to feed off our energy. It’s great to get both of those teams back here at home. That month of ‘road hell’ is finally over.”

The Demons hold a comfortable lead in first place of the 4A class standings, which could disappear quickly down the stretch. Four of their last five games are league games, and they face the only two teams that have beaten them, Steamboat and Crested Butte. Both mountain town teams trail the Demons closely in the standings, however, they must travel to Glenwood and face the Demons on the road.  

Glenwood will be able to rest and reset before one of the biggest games of their season so far. They will host the Steamboat Sailors on Friday at home for the Demons senior night. Steamboat is currently in third place in the standings, but could see a massive flip after Friday night’s game.