The University of Northern Colorado (UNC) Bears played four games this weekend in the Big Mountain Classic 2023 sponsored and hosted by the Big Mountain Hockey Conference. UNC suffered losses to Northern Arizona, #3 Utah State, and Boise State. The Bears redeemed the weekend by ending on a high note with a win over #13 Williston State on Monday afternoon.

Friday night, the Bears played a physical game that set the tone for the weekend. The Northern Arizona game was a tight contest for two periods with limited action. The Bears started to become fatigued offensively and missed multiple power play opportunities. UNC’s defense fought tough, but let two goals slip through. The frantic Bears squad rushed to score, yet would only find one opportunity before having to pull Blake Ostrander and ultimately let another goal in.

Saturday night, the Bears tried to continue the physicality and kept neck-and-neck with #3 ACHA West Ranked Utah State through the first period. In the second period Quinton Reynolds would allow three goals and the Aggies pulled away. Despite some glaringly, uncalled roughing penalties, especially including Aggie players landing on and bumping into Reynolds, Utah State played a crisper game at each skill position to shut down the Bears the rest of the night.

Sunday night the Bears found themselves in the hole early as Boise State Broncos stampeded to a stout 3-0 lead. The second period was quiet with one UNC penalty and one UNC goal from Nick Sheridan. The third period became messy and hard to watch as the Broncos got physically rough and tacked on three more goals.

Monday afternoon, the Bears played a decent first period with a host of “ticky-tacky” penalties on both sides from the cautious referee crew. UNC would light the lamp twice in the second period with smart positioning and favorable bounces. The Tetons fought back with one more goal early in the third, but a power play goal from Lathan Olson would demoralize the Williston State team who started to show fatigue and frustration. The nail-in-the-coffin came as UNC scored a sneaky post goal and breakaway goal at 16:03 and 16:16 into the third period. The electric Ice Haus lunchtime crowd knew at that point they could safely cheer the first win of the Big Mountain Classic 2023 and rejoice.

The Bears will have two more Big Mountain Hockey Conference games with a road game this weekend at Wyoming and hosting the Colorado State Rams on Friday February 3rd. In between those two matchups UNC will travel to California for a three game out of conference slate. Keep an eye on the Bears as they fight to grab the BMHC title for a fourth time down the stretch.