For the week of December 24 - 30, 2002

Suns (5-1) walk
over Gophers

Forti line leads 6-1, 9-3 routs

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Sun Valley Suns goalie Matt Gershater was hot when he was needed.

Left wing Luke Smith continued to work his tail off and pile up points. His newly-formed line, with center Tom Forti and right wing Chris Benson, had 18 of 42 Suns points last weekend.

The result was a fairly easy and uneventful 6-1 and 9-3 Suns sweep of the visiting and undermanned Richtone Painting sextet from Minnesota last Friday and Saturday on resort ice.

Sun Valley (5-1), out-shooting the Painters 112-69 and outscoring them 15-4, made it five consecutive victories. For the second straight weekend Smith topped the Suns with 8 points and vaulted into the team lead with 9 goals and 8 assists for 17 points.

Ivars Muzis, Suns defenseman, rips a shot at Richtone Painting last weekend. Express photo by Willy Cook

But there was a point during last weekend’s two-game series when the outcome was in doubt.

That’s when the Suns rose to the occasion with hard fore-checking and Gershater bailed out his defenders several times with clutch saves.

Actually, it was solid defensive work and back-checking by Smith that created the first Suns goal.

He muscled the puck away from a Richtone forward in the Suns defensive zone and whipped a backhand pass off the side boards up to Forti. Forti (5 assists weekend) found Benson in the slot, and Benson ripped a wrist shot top shelf for his 154th career Suns goal—and first of 2003.

Richtone capitalized on a rare Suns defensive breakdown for its first and only goal. Gershater had no chance, but he was bulletproof on the other 14 Gopher shots in the second period and made several great saves.

Gershater stick-saved Andy Hemenway’s solid chance at the tail end of a Richtone power play, then he thwarted both Dan Hamerick and Mike Hoolihan (on a breakaway) stopping another Gopher power play.

When the Suns goalie sticked away a Ryan Francis shot at the end of the period, the Gophers were fairly convinced they were done. That’s because of a three-goal Suns flurry in the second period for a wide 4-1 lead.

Smith and Benson each finished with two goals and Forti added four assists in the 6-1 victory. Saturday night, assistant captains Smith and John Stevens cashed in with two goals apiece in the 9-3 Suns triumph.

The Suns have a week off, then they’ll travel to Las Vegas (Nev.) for two games against the Royals Jan. 17-18. Next home games are Jan. 24-25 against the St. Paul (Minn.) Turtles.

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Suns 6, Richtone 1
Friday

Richtone Paint 0 1 0 1
Sun Valley Suns 1 3 2 6

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FIRST PERIOD—(1) SV, Chris Benson 1 (Luke Smith, Tom Forti), 15:39.

SECOND PERIOD—(2) Rich, Mike Hoolihan (Andy Hemenway), 3:10. (3) SV, Smith 6 (Forti, Scott Carmack), 12:34. (4) SV, Vilnis Nikolaisons 5 (unassisted), 16:15. (5) SV, Benson 2 (Smith, Forti), 19:40, power play goal.

THIRD PERIOD—(6) SV, Smith 7 (Benson, Forti), 3:46. (7) SV, Paul Baranzelli 5 (Frank Salvoni, John Stevens), 8:42.

SHOTS ON GOAL—for Richtone 7-15-11 for 33; for Sun Valley 17-17-20 for 54.

GOALIES—Richtone, Jesse Farley (48 saves). SV, Matt Gershater (32 saves, 4-1-0 season).

OFFICIALS—Referee, Bobby Noyes; linesmen, John Olson and Curtis Martin.

NOTES—Setting up the Suns’ second goal, which was the eventual game-winner, was a great backhanded centering pass from the left point by defenseman Scott Carmack. Luke Smith poked it home, then Vilnis Nikolaisons snuck through the Gopher defense for an unassisted goal. Forti set up the fourth Suns goal, on the power play, when he noticed a wide passing lane and immediately whipped a pass to Smith, who was perched to the right of Gopher goalie Jesse Farley. Smith caught it and sent it over to Chris Benson in the slot, and Fester scored his second goal….Sun Valley was playing with a short bench because several players didn’t show up for practice on New Year’s Day night. They included Scott Winkler, Eric Demment, Kit Hughes and Matt O’Hare….Suns forward lines were Vilnis Nikolaisons-John Stevens-Frank Salvoni, Luke Smith-Tom Forti-Chris Benson, Caleb Baukol-Perry Smiley-Rohan Verplank. Rotating on defense were Ivars Muzis, Paul Baranzelli, Ben Niemela, Scott Carmack and Mike Selhay…John Miller is out indefinitely with an injured back, joining Jamie Ellison (shoulder) on the injured list…Richtone players on the bench got a kick out of Suns goalie Matt Gershater—a fellow Minnesotan—doing his usual little jig to the music in front of his goal after Luke Smith scored the go-ahead goal in the second period….The Suns have outscored opponents 17-7 in the second periods of five games and 13-3 in the third stanzas.

 

 

Suns 9, Richtone 3
Saturday

Richtone Paint 1 2 0 3
Sun Valley Suns 4 1 4 9

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FIRST PERIOD—(1) SV, Smith 8 (Stevens, Baranzelli), 11:35. (2) Rich, Greg Allen (Jay Lindsay, Mel Westin), 13:12. (3) SV, Stevens 4 (Salvoni, Baranzelli), 14:36. (4) SV, Forti 2 (Benson, Smith), 16:30. (5) SV, Carmack 2 (Salvoni, Eric Demment), 17:35.

SECOND PERIOD—(6) SV, Nikolaisons 6 (Ivars Muzis, Stevens), 2:05. (7) Rich, Westin (Lindsay, T.J. Rasmussen), 8:38. (8) Rich, Andy Hemenway (Ryan Francis, Westin), 10:35, power play goal.

THIRD PERIOD—(9) SV, Smith 9 (Forti, Baranzelli), 10:12. (10) SV, Scott Winkler 3 (Demment, Carmack), 15:27. (11) SV, Salvoni 6 (Smith), 17:05. (12) SV, Stevens 5 (Salvoni, Nikolaisons), 18:03.

SHOTS ON GOAL—for Richtone 12-11-13 for 36; for Sun Valley 14-15-29 for 58.

GOALIES—Richtone, Jesse Farley (49 saves). SV, David Stone (33 saves, 1-0-0 season).

NOTES—Luke Smith once again topped the weekend scoring parade with 4 goals and 4 assists for 8 points. Forti had 6 points, Salvoni and Stevens 5 apiece….Olympic gold medalist Picabo Street was one of the "Beat the Sun" shooters. They gave her three chances. She was way wide on the first two shots, but after some coaching from her brother Baba ("You are shooting too hard"), she hit the board on the third try….The Suns were 0-for-4 on the power play (1-for-5 weekend) and Richtone was 1-for-5 (1-for-9 weekend). Penalty minutes: SV 12 (22 weekend) and Richtone 10 (12 weekend)….The scheduled Jan. 10-11 home games against the Springfield (Mass.) Stars have been canceled, meaning the Suns won’t be playing again on home ice until the St. Paul (Minn.) Turtles arrive Jan. 24-25….Back-up goalie for David Stone tonight was Joanie Whitcomb from the Sun Valley women’s program….Suns goalie James Moskos continues as the back-up goalie to Jason Cugnet of the Idaho Steelheads (24-7-3 season). Moskos was signed Dec. 18 by the Steelies as an emergency backup to Cugnet because Blair Allison has a strained back. Cugnet has 17 of the 24 Steelhead wins and has logged the WCHL league’s best goals-against average, so Moskos hasn’t seen any minutes for the Boise-based minor league hockey team….Since Jamie Ellison is sidelined with a shoulder injury, Luke Smith has assumed the assistant captain’s jersey along with John Stevens. Check the Express web site for updated Suns season statistics.

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2002-03 Sun Valley Suns
Season statistics

(5-1 overall: 5-1 home, 0-0 away)

as of January 8, 2003

 

PLAYER	GAMES	GOALS	AST.	PTS.	PMIN
Luke Smith	6	9	8	17	14.0
Vilnis Nikolaisons	6	6	6	12	2.0
John Stevens	6	5	7	12	8.0
Frank Salvoni	6	6	5	11	0.0
Paul Baranzelli	6	5	5	10	8.0
Eric Demment	5	3	6	9	15.0
Scott Winkler	5	3	5	8	2.0
Tom Forti	4	2	6	8	0.0
Chris Benson	6	2	5	7	12.0
John Miller	4	2	4	6	9.0
Ben Stauffer	4	2	2	4	6.0
Scott Carmack	4	2	2	4	6.0
Ivars Muzis	6	1	3	4	18.0
Mike Selhay	4	0	2	2	7.0
Perry Smiley	6	0	2	2	2.0
Ben Niemela	6	0	0	0	11.0
Caleb Baukol	6	0	0	0	4.0
Matt Gershater	5	0	0	0	2.0
Matt O’Hare	4	0	0	0	0.0
Kit Hughes	4	0	0	0	0.0
Rohan Verplank	4	0	0	0	0.0
Jamie Ellison	1	0	0	0	2.0
David Stone	2	0	0	0	0.0
Kris Webster	0	0	0	0	0.0

 

GOALTENDER	GAMES	GOALS	W-L	AVG.
Matt Gershater	4.5	10	4-1-0	2.20
James Moskos	0	0	0-0-0	0.00
Brian Ross	1.5	7	1-0-0	4.67

Shots—Gershater 147, Stone 55. Shutouts—0.

 

SCORE BY  PERIODS	1ST	2ND	3RD	OT	TOT	AVE
Opposition	4	9	3	1	17	2.8
Sun Valley	13	18	17	0	48	8.0

 

INDIVIDUAL MARKS

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Two-goal games (10)—Luke Smith 2, John Stevens 2, Chris Benson 1, Vilnis Nikolaisons 1, Frank Salvoni 1, Eric Demment 1, Scott Winkler 1, John Miller 1.

Hat tricks or more (3)—Luke Smith 1 (4 goals), Paul Baranzelli 1, Frank Salvoni 1.

Game-winning goals—0.

Power play goals (8-16, 50%)—Eric Demment 2, Paul Baranzelli 1, John Stevens 1, Vilnis Nikolaisons 1, Chris Benson 1, Frank Salvoni 1, Ivars Muzis 1. Power play goals (opposition): 9-41, (22%).

Shorthanded goals (4)—Scott Winkler 2, Luke Smith 1, Vilnis Nikolaisons 1. Shorthanded goals (opposition): 0.

Season penalty minutes: SV 137, opponents 83.

 

 

GAME RESULTS

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Total record: 5-1

Record in 1-goal games: 0-1
Record in overtime: 0-1-0

Games scoring 9 or more goals: 3
Games scoring 7 or more goals: 3

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December 20 (H) Boise Blades 3, Sun Valley 2 (OT)
December 21 (H) Sun Valley 6, Boise Blades 1
December 27 (H) Sun Valley 9, Portland Czechs 3
December 28 (H) Sun Valley 16, Portland Czechs 6
January 3 (H) Sun Valley 6, Richtone Painting
January 4 (H) Sun Valley 9, Richtone Painting 3

 

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