This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Park City might have viewed itself as the underdog going into Monday night's win-or-go home Utah high school hockey game against Murray at the Steiner ice rink.
But the Miners certainly didn't play that way as they used an aggressive start to capture a 4-0 victory over Murray.
The win forced a winner-take-all Wednesday night game at Steiner for the state title between these same two teams and gave Park City all sorts of momentum.
"We know the situation we are in," said first-year Miner coach Josh Angevine. "We were taking on the underdog role and running with that underdog role."
Park City came out as the more aggressive of the two teams. And it took less than five minutes for the Miners to take the lead on an unassisted goal by Marc Colaizzi.
"I don't know what happened," said Colaizzi, who also assisted on another Miner goal. "Went to the defender, blocked the pass and then just skated. We had tons of energy. The whole team was amped up."
The way Park City goalie Andrew Pederson and the Miner defense played, that was all the scoring the winning team would need.
"The boys really helped out," said Pederson about his team's defense. "They played amazing. We came out with our heads on fire. It was win or die, all the time."
Peterson did block 27 Spartan shots on goal, but Murray, which came into this game as the only unbeaten team in the double elimination tournament, could not get one by Pederson.
For good measure, Luke Moeller scored in the second period and Kyle Waterson added another in the third.
Beau Pederson scored an empty net goal in the final 10 seconds to cap Park City's impressive performance.
The end result was that the Miners looked anything but the underdog.
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Storylines
R Marc Colaizzi scores the opening goal and adds an assist.
• Goalie Andrew Pederson shuts out Murray to force a deciding game at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the double elimination tournament.
• Miners Luke Moeller, Kyle Waterson and Beau Pederson also score for Park City.