The Wood River High School Suns hockey team opened its 2005-06 season in Boise this past weekend at the Bank of America Center's second annual High School Invitational.
The Suns were the lone team from outside the Boise area, but managed—with only two practices this season—to advance to the tournament finals where they lost a tough game against Timberline, 3-2.
In their opening three games, the young Suns outplayed Boise counterparts who are often tough and well-prepared.
"We've had some tough games down there in the past," said head coach Andrew Hebert of the typically stiff Boise competition.
Still, in three games against Boise, Eagle and Centennial, Wood River (3-1) outscored their opponents 9-2 and outshot them 106-26.
After one week, Danny Ward leads the offense; in Boise he had two goals and four assists. Max Kwok had a breakout tournament, scoring twice over Centennial in a 4-0 rout and also scoring in the opener over Boise. Sinjin Thomas was also a playmaker, setting up Kwok and Travis Amick with goals over Centennial.
In the final game, Wood River was up by one at the end of the first period and kept it tied through two periods before Timberline (5-0-1) had a two-goal closing stanza for the win. In that game, the Suns offense was still the story, out-shooting Timberline 30-16.
With the exception of a penalty-filled match against Eagle, coach Hebert was encouraged by his team's opening volley. Playing in the goal were Regan O'Reilly and Brian Perry.
"It looks like we'll have a real strong squad this year," he said. "We plan on improving quite a bit."
Leading WRHS scorers: Ward 2/4, Brendel 3/1, Kwok 4/0, Thomas 1/3, Amick 1/1, Jeff Conover 1/0, Jason Heiner 0/1, Carl Jablonski 0/1, Chad Levitan 0/2.
