For the week of January 2 - 8, 2002

7-6 shootout victory lets Suns sweep Seattle

Smith scores hat trick Friday, fires game winner Saturday

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Overtime shootouts haven’t been going very well for the Sun Valley Suns hockey team in recent years.

First-year Suns defenseman Paul Baranzelli, 21, from Virginia, Minn. lets fly with a slapper against the Boise Blades. Baranzelli and 23-year-old Tim Tracy from Michigan have given the Suns some young legs and enthusiasm on the blueline. Express photo by Willy Cook

So the Suns tried something different Saturday night when their scintillating and truly memorable two-game holiday series against the Seattle Indians went to penalty shots.

They let the rookies do it.

When the Suns gathered at the bench to decide their five shooters following a scoreless five-minute overtime period, Suns captain Chris Benson and assistant captain John Stevens came to an agreement.

"Hey rookies!" they called.

Answering the call, in order of shooting, were rookies Joe Lawson, Paul Baranzelli, Ben Stauffer and Tom Forti. "And we put Luke (Smith) in the five-hole," said Benson, meaning Smith would shoot fifth.

The strategy worked, Smith breaking the tie with the game-winning goal, as the Suns beat the Indians 7-6 and swept the weekend series over the defending National Senior Open champions from Seattle.

Friday, Smith scored a three-goal hat trick as the Suns rallied from a 2-0 deficit with five unanswered goals and held off Seattle 7-5. Top scorer Vilnis Nikolaisons added two goals.

Rookie Joe Lawson, 21, of Taconite, Minn., stretching for the puck against the Boise Blades as John Stevens (left) looks on, is centering a bruising Suns forward line featuring 18 years of local experience in Stevens and Chas Riopel. They scored 14 points in the Boise series. Express photo by Willy Cook

"It was one of the better hockey series in the last 10 years," said Benson. "The young guys got a taste of the kind of hockey we can play. And it was the most productive gate I can remember."

Close to 1,000 fans over two nights watched the Suns (4-0) rally from two-goal deficits in each game with an outstanding team effort. Coaches Benson and Kurt Wenzell used 18 different skaters over two nights plus two very solid goalies.

Matt Gershater (3-0) got the win Saturday with 45 saves including three of the penalty shots in the shootout. Newly-arrived goalie James Moskos (1-0) made an impressive debut Friday, making 37 saves.

They were the 10th and 11th consecutive Suns win over two seasons, in fact, the Suns ended the weekend unbeaten in their last 12 contests—a string of success that has paralleled the use of Smith, center Jamie Ellison and left wing Vilnis Nikolaisons as the first forward line.

After ending last season with a scoring flourish, Smith, Ellison and Nikolaisons played together for the first time Friday and pulled out all the stops. Smith (5 points), Ellison and Nikolaisons (2 goals, 2 assists) piled up 11 of the 16 Suns points Friday.

"Those three work so well together," said Benson.

Whereas the Saturday night game often turns into a letdown after an excellent Friday night match-up, the Suns-Indians finale developed its own pre-New Year’s Eve fireworks.

 

Saturday shootout

Over 120 minutes plus the five minutes of overtime, the Suns never really found a way to stop two Indians—5-10, 180-pound wing Doug Bosse from Chicago and 6-4, 225-pound forward Martin Cervin from Slovakia.

Both came equipped with pro experience. Bosse tallied a hat trick each night wound up with a weekend-high eight points. Cervin added three goals and seven points. But Gershater stopped both Bosse and Cervin in the shootout, sparking the victory.

For much of the game, it looked like Seattle’s night.

Bosse scored on a power play in the first period and Cervin capitalized on a two-man advantage in the second period for a 2-0 Indians lead.

Seattle’s defense handcuffed Ellison’s line for much of the game, so it seemed more and more like some other Suns forwards needed to step up and score for the home team to win.

And that’s what happened.

Benson and Stevens hooked up with a sweet passing play in the Indians zone early in the third period, Benson finishing it with his first goal of the season. "It fell into my lap after I isolated my man," said Benson.

The equalizer at the eight-minute mark developed from a hard-nosed push by defenseman Jon Bender. Bender brought the puck into the Seattle zone and took a fall after being wedged between two Indians. But Bender poked the puck forward.

Rookie forward Tom Forti, trailing the play, collected the puck and ripped a quick wrist shot past Seattle goaltender Ryan Heald (48 saves) for a 2-2 tie. Then Forti drew a penalty giving the Suns a power play.

Ellison’s line came on the ice with Benson and first-year defenseman Paul Baranzelli at the point and had a number of good scoring opportunities on the power play but came up short.

The grinders came on the ice—Chas Riopel, Joe Lawson and Stevens—and set up the go-ahead goal which newcomer Mike McMahon delivered with a blast from the point midway through the third.

Giving Seattle power plays wasn’t a good idea all weekend—the Indians scored five on the power play—and Bosse needed only eight seconds to make it a 3-3 game. But the Suns got it back with one of the prettiest scoring plays all weekend.

Ellison, darting into the offensive zone with sneaky quickness, chased down the puck behind Heald’s net and instantly made a centering pass that Smith whipped into the net. Circling along the boards, Ellison cracked his stick on the glass in celebration of the 4-3 Suns lead.

It seemed like Smith’s goal, scored with only two minutes left, would hold up. But Seattle pulled its goalie in favor of an extra attacker and Bosse scored his hat trick from the slot for a 4-4 game with 55 seconds left.

After an uneventful five-minute overtime, the teams went to their benches and selected their shooters.

First up for Seattle was Cervin. Gershater came out and stopped Cervin with his left skate. For Sun Valley, Lawson skated forward, convinced Heald to go down and hit the top shelf successsfully. 1-0 Suns.

Brian Bruininks tied it 1-1 for Seattle and then Baranzelli missed his attempt. Bosse stepped up for Seattle and went wide to his left, but Gershater was right there for the save.

For the Suns, Ben Stauffer came down the middle, made a little deke and found the five-hole for a 2-1 Suns lead. Jonathan Matich tied it 2-2.

The goalies came up big with their pads on the next two attempts—Heald turning Forti’s shot away and Gershater retreating at the right time to keep Sean Sanderson from scoring.

Luke Smith, Sun Valley’s ace-in-the-hole, started down the ice with an intimidating black eye. Heald stayed with Smith the whole way, but Smith literally shot the puck through him.

And the Suns surrounded Smith along the glass at mid-ice, in front of the bleachers and a happy crowd.

"The young guys did a good job out there," said Benson.

Sun Valley had been winless in its last 10 overtime games dating back to Feb. 12, 1999, when Phil Hebert’s game-winning shootout goal beat the Michigan Jets 8-7. Since, the Suns went 0-7-3 in OT. And they are only 2-6 in their eight shootout contests since 1998.

 

Friday’s 7-5 win

After Seattle jumped to an early 2-0 lead, Smith’s first goal fueled a string of five unanswered Suns goals against a very good Seattle sextet that had captured the 2001 U.S. Senior Open (checking) championship last spring in Fond du Lac, Wisc.

You don’t win without good goaltending. The Suns got it from Moskos, 23, a well-traveled native of Boston who had arrived in Sun Valley just two days before.

Moskos, who spent three months tending goal in Russia last summer, had been playing with the Texarkana (Texas) Bandits in the Gulf Coast Hockey League. Moskos came up big in the second period when the Suns were establishing their superiority.

Smith’s breakaway goal made it 3-2, then a fine breakout pass from defenseman Ivars Muzis set the stage for Sun Valley’s first power play goal of the season—a score started by Ellison at the red line, bolstered by Smith’s shot from the slot and finished by Nikolaisons in close.

Given a 4-2 lead, Moskos stopped all 13 Indian shots in the second including a hectic five-minute stretch late in the stanza when Seattle threw the kitchen sink at Moskos and came up with nothing. John Miller’s third-period goal, from Muzis, made it 5-2. Seattle’s uphill battle fell short.

"The boys kept coming and coming on, like a rolling snowball," said Suns assistant coach Kurt Wenzell. "It seemed like everyone we put on the ice had a nice forecheck, particularly Jamie’s line."

Next, the Suns compete in the Utah Winter Games Jan 4-6. They entertain Richtone Painting from Minneapolis Jan. 11-12 on resort ice.

 

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.