Boulder Magazine Winter/Spring 2007-08
feature article

On the Stick

Proliferating hockey teams are a spectator’s dream

By Tyera Eulberg

It’s Friday night, and ice hockey season is in full swing. Fans roar as the forwards break for the goal; then they gasp at the goalie’s save. The atmosphere is as energized as at any professional sports game. But the Avalanche are on the road, and this rink is smack in the heart of Boulder. In fact, the home team wears the gold and black of the University of Colorado, and it’s a club team, several financial steps below NCAA programs. Nonetheless, hockey fans and players agree: It’s just about the best game in town.

Every seat is close to the ice at the Broomfield Events Center. Photo by Hector Acevedo, courtesy Rocky Mountain Rage Professional Hockey Team

The CU hockey team is evidence of a burgeoning ice hockey community in Boulder and its surrounds. Instead of playing only football or soccer, kids are growing up with skates, sticks and pucks. CU defenseman Jon Pfeiff, for example, hails from Niwot. He played youth and later high school hockey in Boulder County. Now a junior, he came to CU following friends already on the team.

“I’ve been a Buffs fan since middle school,” he says. “After watching a few games, particularly the CU-CSU game, I fell in love with the hockey team.” Pfeiff plays with two of his high school teammates, as well as players from teams they competed against. Of 27 guys on the varsity team roster, nine grew up in the Boulder area and 10 more are from other parts of Colorado. “We have out-of-state players as well, which is good,” Pfeiff says, “but it feels good to have a strong CU team that is from Colorado.”

P.J. Bevan (right), plays defense for the Buffaloes. He scored 32 points last season. Photo courtesy Paul Sisson/University of Colorado Ice Hockey

On the ice, the team looks strong and very fast. Precise passes bounce from mid-ice into the offensive zone. The players weave toward the goal before dumping the puck back for a quick slap shot. The game play looks pretty much like the pro hockey on television, spectators say, though the players are a little smaller and retain more of their teeth. But high-level speed and skill have developed here only over the past five or 10 years.

Role Models to the Rescue

CU’s new head coach, Paul Sisson, moved to Boulder from Minnesota in 1998, when hockey in Colorado was “almost nonexistent,” he says. “I started helping out with the team, and couldn’t believe these were the best players in the area. It was comical.” Then the Avalanche NHL team moved to Denver, and the University of Denver’s NCAA team won the national championships. Local kids got interested and started playing, Sisson says, and now they’re up to the college level, clamoring for spots at CU. This year, his first coaching CU, Sisson has a team he hopes to take to the national championship tournament.

Officially, CU is a Division 2 club team in the American Collegiate Hockey Association. While NCAA teams have huge budgets and offer scholarships to attract talent, teams in the ACHA are pretty much on their own. CU’s $100,000 budget for travel and referees comes mostly from advertising. There’s no money from ticket sales—the games are free for students and nonstudents alike, which undoubtedly is one reason the games attract regular spectators. Parents come to watch their children, of course, and fans who play in local youth leagues come to cheer on former teammates and mentors.

Men’s coach Paul Sisson (right) with trainer Ilina Datkhaeva and assistant coach Chris Soriano. Photo courtesy Paul Sisson

Despite the growth of Boulder’s hockey community, CU’s players and coach wish their club team had more visibility. “Everybody wants to come watch. They just don’t know about it yet,” Pfeiff says.

Rocky Mountain Rage

Out in Broomfield, another hockey team hoping to gain some attention hits the ice. But these guys are professionals. The Rocky Mountain Rage, in the Central Hockey League (CHL), is the newest testament to the area’s growing hockey community.

Building on the success of the Avalanche and the collegiate hockey clubs, the Rage came to town last season, playing in the newly completed Broomfield Event Center. The CHL comprises 17 teams, mostly from Western states, including the Colorado Eagles, who play in Loveland. It’s a midlevel professional league, which means hockey is the players’ full-time job, says Brian Clark, director of hockey broadcasting and media relations for the Rage. “They’re not making millions, but the higher-end guys don’t need to work in the off-season.”

Rage members skate with the intensity you’d expect from players who practice every day (and they do). Skaters power around the rink, crushing each other into the boards. It’s not quite the NHL, coach Tracy Egeland admits. The players are a little slower, a little smaller, he says. Plus the style of play tends toward the physical—fights still crop up regularly and receive excited attention from fans, despite their de-emphasis in the NHL. Nonetheless, often enough in a CHL game the puckwork displays pure genius.

Sophomore Erika Lennox, No. 29 on the CU women’s team, faces off against the Mutiny. Photo by Jorian Stuckey

Only one year old, the Rage is still working to establish itself as part of the community. It’s not homegrown; most of the players come from Canada, though forward Chip Dunleavy is from Littleton. “If you can have local players, it’s great, but you get the best players you can from all over the world,” says Egeland, who manages recruiting and contracts alongside his coaching responsibilities. “The way for us to get more local support is to win more.” The Rage finished the 2006-2007 season with a record of 17 wins, 40 losses and 7 ties. About 4,000 people typically come to games—a goodly number, and the cheering, music and Jumbotrons approximate the Denver Pepsi Center at its best. But Clark and Coach Egeland would love to pack the 6,000-seat arena full. While the team works to win games, they also spread the word through grassroots efforts, such as teaching juniors’ clinics and turning up at local festivals like Broomfield Days.

“The word is spreading about us,” Clark says. “People are used to a major-league setting, so it takes them a while to figure it out. In the CHL you can be much more hands-on with the players.” Fans can have a drink with the team at the Event Center restaurant after each game, for instance, and every seat in the arena is close to the ice.

Dedicated fans are emerging from what Clark sees as an extensive hockey population in Boulder and Broomfield. “I grew up playing ice hockey here in the area myself,” Clark says. “But I wasn’t any good, so I decided to try to talk about it.” He’s been amazed by the growth in new rinks and local teams.

A bit further down the Boulder Turnpike, Westminster Promenade’s Ice Centre boasts three rinks, hosting five youth hockey leagues and 14 adult leagues, totaling more than 80 teams. Closer to home is the Boulder Valley Ice rink in Superior. Smaller in scope, the rink still claims three adult leagues and 17 youth teams. Meanwhile, the outdoor NedRink in Nederland offers drop-in hockey in the open air. More and more interaction spreads between the different levels of ice hockey, too. CU players volunteer with Boulder Valley youth teams, and Rage professionals, like Dunleavy and player/assistant coach Brent Cullaton, have even turned up at the Superior rink to play drop-in with the locals. All in all, it’s great news for anyone who likes excitement, speed and finesse—the area is nurturing more hockey than you can shake a stick at.

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