Off-ice fight mars Park City’s state high school hockey championship

Park City coach Mike Adamek is a strong believer that the addition of NHL hockey will make the sport more popular in Utah.

That’s already the case in Park City, though.

The Miners earned their third straight state championship Wednesday night as Mitchell Berry and Wyatt Nellis scored two goals apiece and Alex Harhi turned away 19 shots in a 7-1 win over the Brighton Navy (blue) squad in front of a near-capacity crowd at the Salt Lake County Ice Arena.

With the win, Park City improved to 18-1 overall and accepted the trophy as Utah’s top high school hockey program. While the sport is not sanctioned (yet) by the Utah High School Activities Association, the Miners have taken the sport to new heights and advanced to play another Utah club team made up of Davis County athletes on Monday with the winner advancing to a national tournament next month in Plymouth, Minn.

“We play physical, we play fast and we have loads of depth,” Adamek said. “Hockey is growing and there are some teams who have talented players but can’t match our depth. The kids were excited to play in front of a loud crowd and Brighton has some players who can skate with us, and they always give us their best.”

1 of 33

2 of 33

3 of 33

4 of 33

5 of 33

6 of 33

7 of 33

8 of 33

9 of 33

10 of 33

11 of 33

12 of 33

13 of 33

14 of 33

15 of 33

16 of 33

17 of 33

18 of 33

19 of 33

20 of 33

21 of 33

22 of 33

23 of 33

24 of 33

25 of 33

26 of 33

27 of 33

28 of 33

29 of 33

30 of 33

31 of 33

32 of 33

33 of 33

Park City and Brighton also have history. Brighton (14-4) finished in second place in the league standings and has defeated the Miners in the playoffs in past years. That was not the case this time.

Berry said the team that scores first wins 80 percent of the time. Not surprisingly, it was him who scored the first goal, less than five minutes into the contest. Berry and Jayden Jacobs added two more goals in the first period as Park City led 3-1 and the Miners built the margin to 7-1 by the second intermission.

“They beat us my freshman year, so we wanted to do that to them and get our fans into it,” said Harhi, who allowed only a first-period goal by Skyler Slater. “That’s what made it so fun for us and the crowd.”

Brighton was frustrated for much of the game and the final period was marred by penalties and even a pair of ejections — one on each team. When the contest ended, Park City’s celebration was disrupted by the taunts of Brighton fans.

Many youthful fans in the opposing crowd were asked to leave the arena, but as they reached the lobby, a group of Park City enthusiasts about the same age escalated the event and several punches were thrown.

Nobody was reportedly injured and parents intervened to break up the scuffle. A few minutes later, the police arrived to disperse the last of the group so the second championship contest could begin.

Davis County 8, Sky Canyon 7

Jacob Anderson scored two goals and Tristan O’Connor and Cole Rypien found the net in the third period as the Davis County independent team built a big lead and held off the Cache Valley club team late Wednesday.

Rypien’s goal with 11:55 gave Davis an 8-4 lead and seemingly put the contest out of reach. However, Sky Canyon rallied with a flurry of goals by Michael Higginbotham, Benjamin Higginbotham and Bentley Brady — the last with 3:15 left — to keep the contest interesting until the final buzzer.

Davis avenged a 16-4 loss to Sky Canyon earlier this season and will play Park City Monday in hopes of earning a bid to the national club hockey tourney.