The Sun Valley Suns may have out-legged the Rising Suns hockey squad, recording a 5-3 win Wednesday night at the Sun Valley Skating Center. But when these two teams hit the ice for their annual holiday exhibition, the real winner is the Sun Valley Youth Hockey Organization.
"This game is really important to us," Rising Suns and Sun Valley Junior Hockey Midgets head coach Andrew Hebert said. "It gets the younger kids on the ice and gives the locals an idea of the hockey players that are coming up. And the hometown products are very good."
Sun Valley Suns' fourth-year head coach Chris Benson agreed. He said, "This game gives everyone a chance to see how talented the younger players coming up are."
On Wednesday night, it was the veteran Suns who showed the younger personnel a thing or two about conditioning, scoring the game's final two goals in the third period.
The game winner was a beauty, as Billy Tryder hit Vilnis Nikolaisons up the gut of the Rising Suns defense for a short blue-zone breakaway at the 11:22 mark in the third period. Nikolaisons, the Suns leading scorer last season, knew just what to do from there. He crossed up the goalie with a feint deek to the right and buried the puck at a tough left angle.
Suns center Ryan McDonald and wing Scott Winkler, both Sun Valley Youth Hockey products, also showed their younger counterparts how to produce. McDonald stuffed the game's second goal, unassisted, at 12:15 in the first, giving the Suns a 2-0 lead. In the second, Winkler got a goal himself, with an assist from McDonald and Ryan Enrico.
Trevor Thomas, in his third year with the Suns and a local youth hockey product, also contributed to the defense. Coach Benson gave credit to his defense for "stepping up" in the third period.
Equally impressive on the other side of the puck were the less experienced, but very talented Rising Suns. With prep players such as Justin Taylor (Lake Forest College), Joey Sides (Wentworth College), and Billy Cook (formally of Manhattanville College), and former high school stand-outs such as Matt Ward and Matt Conover, the Rising Suns were deadlocked with the home team at 3-3 going into the third period.
Jeff Conover, brother to Matt and a senior on this year's Midgets high school squad, put the Rising Suns on the board in the first at the 10:20 slot, assisted by Taylor Rothgeb.
Lake Forest's Taylor tied the score later in the period after stealing a blue-zone pass and rifling a wrist shot past the Suns keeper. The final Rising Suns goal came in the second period when Wood River High School football standout and Midgets senior Danny Ward took a pass from Jordan Pritchett and found the back of the net.
Both teams provided equal playing time for the two net-minders. Suns keepers Bobby Farrelly stopped nine shots and Ryan Thomson 15. For the Rising Suns, Regan O'Reilly, another Midgets senior, and Cook both stoned 12 shots.
Other former Sun Valley Youth Hockey products who are suiting up for the Suns are Blake Jenson, Rian Timmons and 12-year veteran Kris Webster.
Rounding out the Rising Suns squad were Austin McCann, Spencer Brendel, Matt Alloway, and Midget seniors Travis Amick, Brandon Brocklebank, Blake King, and Carl Jablonski.
The Suns resume action tonight and Saturday, Dec. 30, against the McCall Mountaineers at 7 p.m. The Suns opened their 2006-2007 campaign with a pair of 3-1 victories over the Mountaineers during the first weekend of December, in McCall.
GAME NOTES: There were three pairs of brothers in the line-ups on Wednesday. Matt and Danny Ward and Matt and Jeff Conover, both of the Rising Suns.....Sinjin Thomas, also of the Rising Suns, took the ice against his older brother, Trevor, who is in his third year with the Suns. Colorado College's Cody Lampl, a decorated Sun Valley Youth Hockey product, didn't suit up after leaving back for school on Tuesday......Ryne Reynoso, another regarded high school hockey player, also was unable to play after signing a professional baseball contract with the Atlanta Braves.....Winkler, returning to the ice after suffering broken ribs in the McCall Mountaineers clash at the start of December, is still a question mark this coming weekend, according to Benson.
The Sun Valley Suns edged the Rising Suns 5-3 at the annual fundraiser Wednesday evening at the Sun Valley Skating Center. Photo by David N. Seelig
