Park City Comfortably Waiting To Find Their Opponent For State Championship
Feb 23, 2024, 8:51 PM
(Photo courtesy of Jay Stevens)
(Photo courtesy of Jay Stevens)
SALT LAKE CITY – Park City Red, one of two varsity hockey teams from Park City High has made it to the Utah State Championship.
Even though most of the state expected them to be there, the road wasn’t easy.
The Miners needed overtime to defeat Juan Diego after trailing by two goals with two minutes left in the second round of playoffs and then had to come up with some penalty-killing miracles to fend off Brighton in the third round.
“I think my favorite moment from being on this team is when we were down to Juan Diego by 2 goals with almost 2 minutes remaining, we took a time out and just told ourselves that if anyone could pull this comeback off, it was us,” sophomore forward Mitchell Berry told KSL Sports. “Since that moment, we’ve barely looked back, we went into OT and won. Each player did their part and contributed to us winning that game and then the next one. I love this team.”
Bingham will play Juan Diego on Saturday, February 24th, at 9:15 p.m. at the Accord Ice Center in West Valley.
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The winner of that game advances to play Brighton on Monday, February 26th, to see who will ultimately advance out of the losers’ bracket to play Park City for the Championship on February 28th, at 8:45 p.m. at the County Ice Center in Murray.
Bigham Senior Center Wyatt Porter sees some advantages of having to play out of the once-beaten bracket.
“Well everyone would love to play out of the winner’s bracket but I would honestly choose the losers bracket because you have to play so much harder so much stronger and more confident and competitive,” Porter said. “Knowing that this could be your last game knowing it could be your last game is the scariest thing ever so you want to play your guts out for everyone on your team the emotion that comes out when you get that is the best playing for your team your coaches and the parents that have put so much into wanting to watch you win everything. Putting up a huge fight, playing some really good teams with amazing players and coaches I have had throughout the seasons on Bingham Hockey is something that will always stay with me.”
Whoever advances out of the losers bracket will have to beat Park City twice to win, while Park City only needs one more win to claim the title.
