11/12 Rocky Mountain Weekend Roundup

There is one word that defined the three series between the Thunder and Fire PIHA teams this weekend: Split. The one pro series and two semipro series ended without a series sweep.

In the Pro series on Friday night, the Colorado Springs Thunder jumped out to a 5-1 lead at the end of the first against the Lakewood Fire. The Fire came back to make the game respectable, and the Thunder won the game 7-4. In the second game, the Fire had a better start and led the game 5-3 late in the third. The Thunder scored a late goal to make the game interesting, but a late power play gave the Fire the ability to kill off the game and win 5-4. Cody Ayers led the Thunder with 4 goals, and John Clewlow led the Fire with 5 points over the two games. That is the Fire’s first regular season win against the Thunder since the Fire rejoined PIHA as a pro team in 2018. Lakewood’s previous wins against the Thunder came in last year’s Conference Semifinal, where they won the series two games to one.

In the first semipro set in Sunday, the Littleton Fire and Black Forest Thunder battled out a hard-fought split. Littleton came back in the first game to win 4-3, and the Thunder took advantage of a depleted Fire squad to cruise to a second game 6-3 victory.

The second semipro set saw the Front Range Vikings play well in the first game to convincingly beat the new-look Arvada Fire 4-1. Arvada then dominated the second game 7-1 to earn the series split.

Sunday night also saw the debut series of the semipro Sloan Lake Tugboats against the Prowlers. The Tugboats swept the Prowlers, winning 6-2 and 3-2.