Monday's roundup: Fountain Valley hockey wins 1st Peak Conference title since restart

Highlights from Monday's high school sports scene around the Pikes Peak region.

HOCKEY

Fountain Valley 5, Pueblo County 0

At Pueblo: In five short seasons, Fountain Valley has become a conference champion.

Trevor Shott and Sage Marshall each scored twice in a shutout win over Pueblo County to lock up at least a share of the Peak Conference for Fountain Valley (14-4, 5-1 league).

Danes coach Mike Payne believes Fountain Valley will go in as the No. 1 seed from the conference because it holds all head-to-head tiebreakers with opponents who can tie the Danes. As the league champ, Fountain Valley will host one of four sites for the first round of the playoffs on Feb. 22-23 at Sertich Ice Center.

While Payne was aware of what the victory over Pueblo County could mean, he didn’t point it out to his players. Not that he needed to.

“They probably worked it out on their own,” Payne said. “I didn’t talk about it with them. Our focus has been playing our best hockey to get into a playoff mindset.”

Payne resurrected the Fountain Valley hockey program five seasons ago. Two seasons ago, the Danes reached the semifinals. Now they’re conference champs.

“We had three or four freshmen that stayed with us for four years,” Payne said. “Even though they’ve graduated, they formed part of our team culture. That culture and those values have been passed on to the guys this year. (Marshall) talked about what he learned from those other kids.”

Marshall scored his 15th and 16th goals on Monday. Shott’s were his 33rd and 34th and Brenden Wood notched his fourth.

Lewis-Palmer 5, Cheyenne Mountain 2

At Sertich: Lewis-Palmer (8-8-1, 6-5-1) scored five times in the first period to knock off Cheyenne Mountain and cement a spot in the playoffs.

Cam Fraser scored twice, and Blake Thompson, Jacob Tellez and Nick Pavlik each tallied for the Rangers, who can finish anywhere between eighth and fifth place.

Lucas Palonen stopped 21-of-23 shots to spur the Rangers back into the playoffs.

Ryan Case and Doug Klopenstine scored for the Indians, who are still alive in the playoff race and have two games remaining.

Pine Creek 6, Palmer 1

At Sertich: A four-goal outburst from Pine Creek (8-12, 5-9) in the final period, including two by Andrew Poe for a hat trick, locked up a victory over Palmer (5-11-1, 3-8-1) in the Eagles’ regular-season finale.

Nathan Lucken and Ryan Parent also scored for Pine Creek in the third. Logan Bowles put the Eagles ahead in the first, and Poe notched the first of his three goals on the power play in the second.

Sam Horning scored for Palmer.