HIGHLANDS RANCH | Dominic Suchkov thought long about how he might celebrate a goal in Tuesday night’s Class 5A ice hockey state quarterfinal contest.
Though low on energy because of how many minutes his Cherry Creek co-op team and Mountain Vista logged in a marathon at South Suburban Sports Complex, the senior forward got a chance to celebrate his biggest goal of the season thus far.
Suchkov skated onto a loose puck after a collision in the Golden Eagles’ end and beat the goalie low to the glove side for the golden goal that lifted the third-seeded Bruins over the sixth-seeded Golden Eagles 4-3 and into the Frozen Four. Coach Jeff Mielnicki’s Cherry Creek team moved into a Saturday semifinal contest on the same ice against No. 2 Valor Christian, which won the previous quarterfinal 5-3 over No. 5 Denver East.
The Golden Eagles got on the scoreboard first less than five minutes into the contest, when Kail Burns knocked in a puck that was loose below the pads of Cherry Creek senior goaltender Jack Ryan (Cherokee Trail) after an initial save.
It stayed that way until less than four minutes were left in the period when the Bruins went on the power play and needed just six seconds to tie the score. Senior Billy O’Grady (Grandview) ripped a shot through traffic that found the top of the net. Another play play yielded the go-ahead goal inside the final two minutes with a rip from senior Daniil Korobeynikov on a cross-ice pass from Suchkov.
A sticky back-to-back 5-on-3 situation in the second period eventually resulted in a tie game. The Bruins killed off one penalty, only to have another one called seconds later. They got a man back and were 26 seconds from getting back to even when Jayden Juan whipped a shot past Ryan.
Cherry Creek junior Austin Katz, who was in the penalty box for the last penalty, untied it again with a power play goal with 2:18 left in the period.
Mountain Vista knotted it up again in the blink of an eye in the third period, as Ayden Morretti won a faceoff, took the puck up ice along the wing and fired a long shot that got past Ryan (who faced 47 shots in the contest and stopped 44 of them) and connected with the back of the net.
The Golden Eagles couldn’t convert a power play chance that spanned the end of regulation as well as the beginning of the first eight-minute overtime period.
The second set of quarterfinals is scheduled for Wednesday, beginning with top-seeded Regis Jesuit against No. 8 Standley Lake at 5 p.m., which will be followed by No. 4 Monarch against No. 12 Heritage at 7:30 p.m.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
CHERRY CREEK 4, MOUNTAIN VISTA 3 (2OT)
Score by periods:
Mountain Vista 1 1 1 0 0 — 3
Cherry Creek 2 1 0 0 1 — 4
SCORING
First period: Mountain Vista — Kail Burns (Tyler Hogge), 12:49; Cherry Creek — Billy O’Grady (Charles Keating, Eric Burggraf) (power play), 3:59; Cherry Creek — Daniil Korobeynikov (Burggraf, Dominic Suchkov), 1:37
Second period: Mountain Vista — Jayden Juan (Nicholas Bryson, Hogge) (power play), 6:08; Cherry Creek — Austin Katz (Ethan Robbins, Mario Liles) (power play), 2:18
Third period: Mountain Vista — Ayden Moretti, 16:27
Second overtime: Cherry Creek — Suchkov (Korobeynikov), 3:05
Mountain Vista saves: Ethan Kyllo (39 shots on goal-35 saves). Cherry Creek saves: Jack Ryan (47 shots on goal-44 saves)
