Metro 6 – Mines 1

Metro 6 – CU 1

Metro JV 4 – UNC 5

Metro JV 3 – CSU 5

Do you know the way to San José? Metro’s club inline hockey team does.

The Roadrunners ran away from the Colorado School of Mines, 6-1, in the Rocky Mountain Collegiate Roller Hockey Association Division II Championship game Feb. 27 at OD’s Sports Crossing in Fort Collins. The victory earned the team a trip to San José, Calif. to compete in Nationals April 27.

“It was a great team effort all around,” Head Coach Bob Derian said. “We had a lot of great leaders on this team, all very, very unselfish. It was all about us, not about me. Every guy on this team just wanted to win. Period. They didn’t care who scored the most goals or the most assists; it was all about winning.”

Defenseman Cody Lemon put the Roadrunners up 1-0 two minutes into the game before Mines forward, and RMCRHA leading scorer, Craig Crow tied it with a power-play goal six minutes later. The score remained knotted at one until six minutes into the third period, when Metro defenseman Ryan Donahue unleashed a flurry, scoring three goals in two minutes to break the game open. Forward Kyle Brooks added the final fifth goal a few minutes later.

Metro defenseman Cody Lemon nearly scores a goal in the third period of the Roadrunners’ 6-1 victory over the Colorado School of Mines Feb. 27 at OD’s Sports Crossing in Fort Collins. Metro won the Rocky Mountain Collegiate Roller Hockey Division II Championship and earned a trip to San José, Calif. to compete in nationals in April. Photo by Matt Gypin

“It feels awesome,” said defenseman Andrew Smith, who is also the club’s president. “We were pretty dominant last year too, and the championship game we lost by a goal. It feels really good to pull it out and use everyone on the team to be able to win this game and get us to nationals.”

Earlier in the day, the Roadrunners stomped the University of Colorado 6-1 in the semifinals to advance to the championship game. Brooks scored three goals and Bobby Derian, son of coach Bob, added two more. Donahue also scored and defenseman Andy Tillotson had two assists.

Metro’s JV club inline hockey team, competing in the RMCRHA’s B Division, nearly joined varsity at nationals. The Roadrunners came back from a 3-1 deficit in the third period to beat the University of Northern Colorado 4-3 in the B Division semifinals before losing 5-3 to Colorado State University in the championships.

The Roadrunners led 2-1 going into the third period of the championships game before the Rams took control with two quick goals and never looked back.

Goalie Mark Gafari said the team was happy to have made it as far as they did and is looking forward to next season.

“We had a pretty good season,” Gafari said. “Today we actually had one of our best games. We made a comeback, which was huge for us, against UNC earlier in the semis and we didn’t give up against CSU, we kept trying. Even though we lost the state championship, as a team we’re happy we made it here. We think we deserved it. We were leading after the third period, which was a shock to them because they came in thinking they had it. Even though they did get it, we as a team felt we played our best and we’re really excited for next season.”

Next season begins next month for the varsity team. Let’s hope they find their way back from San José as national champions.