5A ice hockey: Denver East wins first state title in program history

DENVER – The Denver East Angels hockey program has reached the summit.

Just eight years after starting the first hockey program in Denver Public Schools history, the No. 1-seeded East Angels won the first state title in their program’s history with a 6-3 victory over No. 3 Valor Christian in the Class 5A state title game on Tuesday evening inside Ball Arena.

“I’m super excited for the kids, I’m so proud of them because they’ve worked so hard for this,” Denver East head coach John Kopperud said. “They just kept fighting and fighting tonight. They deserved all the credit, they did a great job.”

“It’s unreal. Valor’s such a good team,” sophomore goalie Noel Friedman added. “We fought hard and had an OK start, but then got better along the way. We got the result we wanted and it’s amazing. We did this for the seniors last year. We’re making history.”

Valor Christian held the advantage in the shots category after one period of play, notching 10 to Denver East’s seven, but despite the disparity, Friedman stopped all 10 attempts to keep it scoreless after one. The second-year player stopped 32 Valor shots on the night.

“I didn’t like our first period,” Kopperud stated. “We got outplayed. Luckily our goalie (Friedman) is spectacular and he kept is in it in the first period.”

The Angels broke the ice to start the second period, as Cody Asheim took a pass in the middle of the attacking zone and chipped it past the goalie to make it 1-0. The goal was assisted by Kaden Dunham and Benton Wilson.

After about 10 minutes of back and forth, Denver East struck like lighting, twice. A goal by Joseph Capra, assisted by Asheim and Calvin Stone was followed up just 17 seconds later with a goal by Nicholas Chadd, assisted by Connor Hasse and W. Zeke Romero, to quickly up the Angel lead to 3-0 late in the second.

The Eagles had one answer, netting a power play goal at the four-and-a-half-minute mark on a slap shot by Aiden Owen, which was directed in for the goal by Alec Alfieri, to make it 3-1. But Denver East had the last laugh of the second period, as Haase had a breakaway goal, scoring it with just 1.3 ticks left on the clock, to close a five-goal flurry.

“We came alive in the second,” Kopperud said. “We’ve been an explosive team all year and if you look at the season, our second period has been our best period all year long, and the same thing happened today.”

Valor got the deficit to within two early on in the third on a goal from Henry Barnes, assisted by Garrett Covney. After stellar defense by the Angels to keep the two-goal lead safe, they scored the triumphant game sealing goal with just under three minutes to go as Sam Beardshear scored on a breakaway, assisted by Haase and Chadd, to put the game away.

Benjamin Kluza put a bow on things with an empty netter, before Valor scored with 2.1 seconds to play but that would not put a damper on a 6-3 state championship victory.

“Putting East on the map this year is just special,” Capra added. “We lost a lot of guys last year, but we had a lot of guys come back and a lot of guys step up this year. So, we definitely built a good team this year. We haven’t lost since Dec. 4 and I don’t plan on starting. Let’s go into next year with the same attitude.”