Fury is golden at Utah Winter Games
Four hockey wins for Sun Valley women
The Sun Valley Fury women’s hockey team
mined gold at the Utah Winter Games last weekend, going 4-0 to capture the
B bracket banner.
With two shutouts from goalie Joni
Whitcomb-Fox (46 saves) and seven goals by tourney MVP Nicole Perkins, the
Fury (6-3-1) served notice they’ve come of age.
"Every player on the team contributed
whether they made the stat sheet or not," coach Johnny Ellison said.
"They played excellent hockey."
Ellison reserved special praise for star
center Perkins and goalie Whitcomb-Fox.
He said, "Nicole and Joni stood head
and shoulders above the rest. Joni kept the goals out of our net. Nicole
put the puck in their net. It took both those things to make it
happen."
It was rookie Dotty Sarchett who scored the
Fury’s first goal of the 15th annual tournament.
Sarchett deflected a shot by Perkins to go
up on the Boise Bombshells 1-0 in the first. Perkins, who was Player of
the Game, netted a breakaway in the second and Fox’s seven saves held up
in a 2-0 victory.
In the second match, Fury peppered Salt
Lake Black Diamonds II with 27 shots and converted four in a 4-0 shutout.
Jeannie Kiel, Nancy Parsons-Brown and
Perkins (2) lit the light. Assists were provided by Parsons-Brown, Kiel,
Cinda Lewis, Whitney Ellison and Mia Edsall.
Earning Player of the Game was Fury wing
Cinda Lewis.
In the Fury’s third game against Wasatch,
Perkins (POG) reeled off a natural hat trick to clip the Wings 3-1. Lewis
had two of the feeds and Parsons-Brown one.
The outcome sent Sun Valley into the final
against the Bombshells, an opponent the Fury is quite familiar with.
Ellison said, "It’s always a very
equal game against Boise. Sometimes they win. Sometimes we do. It’s
always tough."
A defensive battle raged for the first two
frames and neither team could find twine.
With six minutes left in the third,
blueliner Jen Copeland stepped up from the point to convert a Whitney
Ellison pass and crack open the deadlock.
Only a minute remained when Boise got loose
in its offensive zone and tied it 1-1, sending the exciting game into
sudden-death overtime.
A minute and a half into OT, Perkins skated
through two defenders and beat the goalie 1-v-1 for the game- and
tournament- clinching goal.
"Rather than getting down on
themselves for letting in a late goal, the girls got very determined and
very aggressive," Ellison said. "Joni made two key stops to keep
Boise from getting any momentum and Nicole just took matters into her own
hands."
Copeland and Perkins shared Player of the
Game. Nancy Parsons-Brown joined them in tourney MVP honors.
Rounding out the roster were Jen Seiller,
Lolly Greeninger and Cathy Butterfield.
The Fury will take on the Boise Hurricanes
for a two-game set at the Bank of America Centre this weekend.
Sunsets play shorthanded
The Fury’s sister-team the Sunsets had
what captain Wendy Hall called a "frustrating weekend," in Utah.
"We just couldn’t finish it
off," Hall said. "We dominated both games we lost."
Sun Valley finished with a 1-2 record in
the four-team A bracket, grabbing bronze behind Boise and Salt Lake.
Skating with only nine players, including
goalie Karen Morrison, Sun Valley opened with a 1-0 loss to Boise Blades.
Coach John Miller moved hot-scoring duo
Hall and Lucy Chubb up to forward in the second game against the Salt Lake
Black Diamonds I and the strategy paid off.
Hall converted a Kris Miller pass on the
opening shift.
It turned into a physical contest. Salt
Lake tied it 1-1 and scored twice more for a 3-1 lead.
Chubb slotted a pass from Hall to 3-2 in
the second, but Sun Valley was snakebit in the third. Sheila Naghsh rang
the post and Larsen Peterson’s wraparound was just barely brushed off by
the goalie.
Salt Lake held on to win 3-2.
"It was a bummer," Miller said.
"We lost two critical games that knocked us out of contention. The
other teams were hungry to beat us because we have been beating up on them
the last two years."
The Sunsets were the windshield and Provo
the bug in the finale, a 7-1 Sun Valley victory.
Jini Griffith scored a hat trick. Miller,
Christl Holzl, Naghsh and Georgia Hutchinson added goals. Team MVP Edith
Iler had 2 assists, Peterson 3, Hutchinson 2 and Hall 1.
