Wednesday — February 11, 2004

In sudden death, Sunsets keep Stella title

Trip Teton Passers 5-4 with three winners

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By JODY ZARKOS
Express Staff Writer

Since the Teton Passers seem to have a little trouble counting, they may be interested to know that the Sun Valley Sunsets have won the Stella Cup women’s hockey tournament for four years running.

The latest Sunsets title was claimed on Sunday at Jackson Hole, Wyo. In the A bracket final, Sun Valley sunk three penalty shots to ice Jackson Hole’s Teton Passers 5-4, after the game was tied 4-4 at the end of regulation action.

Here’s the upshot of Jackson Hole’s counting problem:

The first three shooters for the Sunsets, Liza Weekes, Nicole Perkins and Wendy Speth, converted their shots. Sunsets goalie Karen Morrison had turned back the first two attempts by the Passers.

Inexplicably, Jackson Hole did not take their three remaining shots—perhaps not knowing if they made them and Sun Valley missed theirs the score would be tied again.

And the Sunsets weren’t about to remind them.

"Nobody brought it up," assistant Sunsets captain Wendy Speth remarked. "We just kind of went, oh well."

Sun Valley might have more forthcoming had its first against the Teton Passers last weekend been a little cleaner.

Speth said, "It has always been so much fun to play Jackson, but in Saturday’s game they were pretty physical and dirty. The refs were just letting things go. We were bitter and bummed after it was over."

Jackson Hole scored twice in 46 seconds for a 2-0 lead. Late in the third period, the Sunsets found the sweet spot from the slot. Defenseman Christine Gould ripped in a pass from Speth to trail only 2-1 and Speth converted from Lucy Chubb to knot the score 2-2 with less than nine minutes to play.

The rally was welcome.

"It was good for us, because we are not known as a comeback team," Speth said.

The Sunsets rained on the Utah Storm’s parade, winning the opener 3-2. The teams combined for five goals in a furious four-minute spree. Michele Hampton, Perkins and Chubb lit the light. Morrison turned back 37 shots overall and 20 alone in the third period.

Already assured a spot in the final because of two losses by both Utah teams, the Sunsets sailed to a 7-1 win over the Utah Shadows early Sunday.

"We needed to get some goals and get some confidence back," Speth said. "We went out there with the thought we would just save our legs and score some goals."

It worked. Five different players tallied goals, including Speth (2), Julie Bell-Anderson (2), Edith Weidemann, Christl Holzl and Chubb.

That pitted Jackson and Sun Valley in the women’s championship. There was no lack of passion on either side, and the game was much cleaner than the first time they clashed.

Goals by Liza Weekes and Speth pushed the Sunsets lead to 2-0, which Jackson halved 2-1. Speth scored again for a two-goal cushion. Jackson answered 10 seconds later to make it 3-2 in the Sunsets’ favor.

Chubb netted the team’s fourth goal with three minutes to go and all the Sunsets had to do was hang on, but they lost their grip on the lead. Jackson scored twice in 1:33 to tie the score 4-4 and send the decision into sudden-death overtime.

Huddling up before the game, Kris Miller, wife of Suns player Johnny Miller, had mentioned the Suns recent history against the Jackson Moose (four straight losses last month) and the Sunsets wanted to turn the tide against their Teton Passers counterpart.

The Sunsets cheer before overtime was: "Do it for the Suns!"

"Everyone got really fired up," Speth said. "We dug really deep. We wanted to go home winners and nothing else mattered."

The Sunsets converted their penalty shots and Morrison finished with 19 saves for team Most Valuable Player honors.
"Karen started off really strong and ended strong," Speth said.

Speth wasn’t shabby herself.

The center scored six goals and served up five assists. Chubb added three goals and three assists and Kris Miller tallied six assists.

Also: Nicole Perkins 2/3, Julie Bell-Anderson 2/2, Liza Weekes 2/1, Christl Holzl 1/2, Edith Weidemann 1/1, Christine Gould 1/1, Jennifer Embree 0/2, Michele Hampton 1/0.

 

Fury at Jackson Hole

When it comes to potential, 13-year-old Russian supermodels have nothing on the Sun Valley Fury women’s team.

Fury coach Chris Edwards remarked, "This team has got great potential to do well in the future. There is great chemistry."

Playing in the eight-team B bracket in the Stella Cup tournament, the Fury went 2-1, beating Jackson Hole (5-1) and Salt Lake (4-1) and losing to Missoula (3-0).

Edwards said, "We started the first game a little flat. The players were getting used to each other, but after that they played really well. I can’t wait to see more games in the future."

Unlike most weekend pickups, Jenni Conrad (5 points) proved to be a good one, scoring four goals for the team. Casey Mills (1/5) led the squad in points with six.

Other scorers were Jini Griffith 0/3, Jeannie Kiel 0/3, Sara Shafer 2/0, Bege Reynolds 1/1, and Jenny Gatehouse 1/0. Kris Josey, Merri Whitehead, Mia Edsall and Nancy Parsons-Brown also made the trip. Goalie Joanie Fox finished with 40 saves. Blueliner Nicky Elsbree was named the team’s Most Valuable Player.

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.