2012 Boulder Bison Playoffs

During the season the Boulder Bison earned the second seed in the Mountain Division WSHL playoffs this year. Our first series was against the Cheyenne Stampede two weekends ago. We quickly eliminated them with a sweep in a 5-1 win Friday night and a 7-1 win Saturday night. I recorded three assists against Cheyenne, two of which were on the power play.

After the sweep we directed our attention to the Idaho Steelheads. We had our bus ride up late Wednesday night and pulled into McCall Idaho around 7 Thursday. Our morning skate Friday morning got us prepared and relaxed for the series and the team was focus and prepared. Friday night’s game was a great one. We stuck to our systems throughout the game and held a 1-0 lead the entire game until about 8 minutes left when we extended the lead to 2-0. Unfortunately we took a little breath with about 4 minutes left in the game and Idaho scored 3 goals in the last minutes to win 3-2. As a team we prepared ourselves for Saturday’s game and put that heartbreaking loss behind us. Although the same situation happened again late in the game when we lost a 2-0 lead again. Behind 3-2 late in the game Dylan Meier gave us a clinching goal with under a minute left to send us to OT. We went through 2 overtime periods before Chris Guidotti scored with 10 minutes left in the second overtime to win the game.

Unfortunately after such a great win we fell in the final game 4-2 with an empty net after Preston James led us with 2 goals late in the game as we fought for a comeback after being down 3-0. The Bison had a great season and I was honored to be a part of the team in playoffs. Our coaches Brent Cullaton and Derek Armstrong taught me, along with the rest of my teammates, some extremely valuable skills and values this year. I am sure I speak for the rest of the team when I say that we sincerely appreciate the opportunity to work with two coaches so knowledgeable and experienced.

I now set my sights on next year. After being out with my hip for 6 months the 7 games I played have barely begun to quench my thirst and passion that has accumulated over the past months. I intend to continue training and preparing my options for next year.