For the week of February 5 - 11, 2003

AmeriTitle tastes
sweet victory

In Gund Cup final

---

By MICHAEL AMES
Express Staff Writer

The Gund Cup was paraded around the ice for yet another victory toast Monday night.

Every great tournament has its traditions and the championship game of Sun Valley’s Senior Men’s Hockey League is no different.

This Gund Cup wasn’t won without its share of drama. Neither team in the finals was expected to be there.

It was a Cinderella match-up of sorts. The young Cellar and experienced AmeriTitle won surprising upsets in their semi-final match-ups to earn their places in Monday night’s big money game.

The game, won by AmeriTitle 4-3, pitted friend against friend and even teammate against teammate as various members of our own Sun Valley Suns occupied spots on both benches.

One Sun, Paul Baranzelli, got the game off to a quick start for AmeriTitle with a goal from another Sun, Frank Salvoni, 19 seconds into the game. Baranzelli would have another at 2:24, this time from Mike Punnett.

The upstart Cellar team didn’t take these early points lightly. They answered with two from Suns star Tom Forti who put the first in with an assist from Charles Friedman and then added a power play goal minutes later from yet another Friedman assist.

The period finished out with AmeriTitle on top 3-2 as Mike Rejio found the net with help from Phil Hebert.

The second period was the most tightly contested.

Wet-behind-the-ears as they seemed in contrast to the veterans of AmeriTitle, The Cellar’s boys weren’t willing to let seniority determine the outcome of this battle.

So they tied it 3-3 in the second—Kit Hughes from Matt O’Hare—two young Suns and New England natives teaming up with nothing but sheer effort to get the tying goal.

The play began simply as O’Hare carried the puck deep into the zone and lost his footing near the goal line.

Most players would have assumed the play had dissolved, but O’Hare wasn’t willing to it go. There he was, back upright, face mustachioed and legs akimbo as he maintained control of the puck between his feet. He flipped it at the net from his seated state. A flurry ensued.

AmeriTitle was caught off guard and Hughes lifted the puck over the goalie’s shoulder for the game-tying score.

But AmeriTitle showed poise and answered quickly as Baranzelli got his hat trick with the game winner near the end of the second period.

After the game, rivalries were put aside and both teams had only kind words for their opponents.

"We were impressed with the goaltending of AmeriTitle," said Cellar player Hughes.

Hughes added that his team would like to "recognize and pay tribute to the many players for AmeriTitle who played their last games here tonight, they will be remembered."

And so another Gund Cup was held aloft, filled with warming libations and shared between winners and losers.

Smiles abounded as the Cup was toted from one watering hole to the next, passed between players and fans in what has been called "quite possibly the greatest men’s hockey league in the country."

It seemed like everyone had won a piece of The Gund Cup.

 

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.