Fountain Valley values quality in win over Lewis-Palmer

MONUMENT - Fountain Valley doesn’t have the luxury to mix up lines or give its top players much time to rest. With just 12 skaters, no one can complain about playing time.

On Friday at the Colorado Sports Center, the Danes’ quality beat the quantity of Lewis-Palmer as Trevor Shott and Jakub Myska scored twice in a 5-3 victory as both teams returned from the holiday break.

“They have four lines and we have two and a half,” Shott said. “But I’d take any of our guys over any of theirs. It was a little difficult getting back into game mode after the break.”

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Sage Marshall added a goal and two assists for Fountain Valley (3-1 overall, 1-0 Peak Conference), which beat the Rangers (3-5, 0-1) for just the second time since restoring the program five years ago.

“Their skill level is better than ours,” Rangers coach Steve Fillo said. “We wanted to wear them down. They’re a good team, but our advantage is in our numbers. We wanted to get the puck deep, but we didn’t do a good job breaking out.”

The Danes protected a 4-3 lead in the third period, limiting Lewis-Palmer to four shots on goal. Then Shott gave Fountain Valley an insurance goal with 2:46 left, a one-timer from close range off a crisp centering pass from Garrett Van Wyhe.

“A lot of guys on the team want to score, but we had to play to preserve the lead,” Shott said. “We had to get one more goal, and we caught them when they got tired toward the end."

Lewis-Palmer scored first at the 5:02 mark of the first period as Cam Fraser took a pass from Cam Brummond and beat Danes goalie Lucas Huerga Marin. The play came after a turnover deep in the Fountain Valley end.

The Danes tied it up just 38 seconds later on Myska's sharp-angle shot from the left wing.

Marshall gave Fountain Valley a 2-1 lead with 8:02 left in the first on a wrist shot that beat L-P goalie Lucas Palonen high to the stick side.

The Rangers then converted their first power play into the tying goal after Casey McMullin buried a rebound off a Taylor Hill shot from the top of the left faceoff circle.

Lewis-Palmer took a 3-2 lead 1:35 into the second period when Julian Claudio took a nice pass from McMullin and one-timed it past Marin.

Myska tied it with 8:45 left and just nine seconds into the Danes' first power-play, taking a pass from Shott behind the net and stuffing it past Palonen. Then Shott's breakaway with 33 seconds left gave Fountain Valley a 4-3 lead. Shott took a long pass from Aleksi Pulkkila and broke in alone, beating Palonen with a backhand.