HIGHLANDS RANCH | For all of 19 seconds, the Regis Jesuit ice hockey team found itself behind in the 2017 state ice hockey playoffs.
Coming off a first round bye, the Raiders ceded the first goal of Friday evening’s second round contest to Lewis-Palmer at The Ice Ranch, but roared back for a 7-1 victory and a three-game series sweep of the Rangers for the season.
Coach Dan Woodley’s Regis Jesuit team had seven different goal scorers and Kyle Nelson, Justin Lico and Shane Ott racked up three assists apiece as it dispatched one Foothills Conference team to set up a Saturday quarterfinal against another league team: Dakota Ridge.
The eighth-seeded Eagles topped ninth-seeded Ralston to move into a 5:30 p.m. contest against Regis Jesuit at Family Sports Center. The Raiders won both meetings between the teams (4-3 on Jan. 25 and 7-0 on Feb. 1).
Should Regis Jesuit find itself behind, it certainly knows how to respond. Lewis-Palmer scored first when Ben Kleinsmith got a shot past Raiders’ goaltender Dillon Whalen (10 saves), but almost as soon as the goal was announced over the public address system, junior Wyatt Verity scored the equalizer for the Raiders.
Michael Baer, Rowan Barnes and Anders Erickson followed with goals in the period to give Regis Jesuit a comfortable lead at the first intermission.
Ott boosted the lead to 5-0 with a second period goal and Connor Kilkenny and Cade Alcock tallied in the final period.
Whalen faced just six shots over the final two periods.
The third-seeded Cherry Creek co-op team also advanced to the quarterfinals with a 4-0 victory over No. 14 Battle Mountain. The Bruins face 11th-seeded Steamboat Springs in a quarterfinal at 11:10 a.m. at Family Sports Center, while the other two matchups feature No. 5 Valor Christian against No. 4 Resurrection Christian and No. 7 Mountain Vista vs. No. 2 Monarch.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at 303-750-7555 or sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. FB: Aurora Prep Sentinel
REGIS JESUIT 7, LEWIS-PALMER 1
Score by quarters:
Lewis-Palmer 1 0 0 — 1
Regis Jesuit 4 1 2 — 7
SCORING
First period: Lewis-Palmer — Ben Kleinsmith (Parker Bock), 3:18; Regis Jesuit — Wyatt Verity (Shane Ott, Rowan Barnes), 3:37; Regis Jesuit — Michael Baer (Ott, Justin Lico), 9:22; Regis Jesuit — Barnes (Cade Alcock, Kyle Nelson), 9:57; Regis Jesuit — Anders Erickson (Ott, Lico), 12:49
Second period: Regis Jesuit — Ott (Verity), 3:15
Third period: Regis Jesuit — Connor Kilkenny (Lico, Nelson), 6:23; Regis Jesuit — Alcock (power play) (Nelson, Barnes), 7:24
Power play — Lewis-Palmer 0-for-2; Regis Jesuit 3-for-5. Goaltending — Lewis Palmer: Noah Vanderbeck (40 shots on goal-33 saves); Regis Jesuit — Dillon Whalen (11 shots on goal-10 saves)