SUNS 6, INDEPENDENCE 5 (ot SHOOTOUT)
Friday, JAN. 5
Philadelphia Independence 5 0 0 5
Sun Valley Suns 0 5 1 6
FIRST PERIOD (25-minute period)—(1) Philadelphia, Ross Cowan (Martin Galstyan, Adam Lewis), 5:05. (2) Philadelphia, Matt Ciancia (Galstyan), 8:47. (3) Philadelphia, Mike Weyermann (Ryan Wick), 10:45. (4) Philadelphia, Greg Barber (Ciancia), 12:13, power play goal. (5) Philadelphia, Wick (Dave Lunardini), 21:26.
SECOND PERIOD (25-minute period)—(6) SV, Ivars Muzis 1 (Vilnis Nikolaisons, Jamie Ellison), 3:25. (7) SV, Ryan Enrico 8 (Ellison), 6:42, power play goal. (8) SV, Paul Baranzelli 7 (Chris Warrington, Ryan McDonald), 10:55, shorthanded goal. (9) SV, Nikolaisons 3 (Enrico, Warrington), 11:58, shorthanded goal. (10) SV, Baranzelli 8 (Ellison, Jon Duval), 13:04.
OVERTIME (5 minutes)—No scoring.
SHOOTOUT—(11) SV, Baranzelli 9, hat trick and game-winning goal.
SHOTS ON GOAL—Philadelphia 15-12-4-3 for 34; Sun Valley 27-21-4-2 for 54.
GOALIES—Philadelphia, Mike Viscuse (48 saves); SV, Ryan Thomson (29 saves, 4-0-0 record).
OFFICIALS—Referee, Dave Patrie; linesmen, Eric Wingard and Curt Martin.
NOTES—John Miller scored the apparent winning goal at the end of regulation, but it was disallowed because it was after the buzzer....Listed as the third and final Suns shooter in the shootout was Vilnis Nikolaisons, but the Suns didn't need him with goalie Ryan Thomson stonewalling the Independence....Fourth-year Suns goalie Thomson (21-7-0, 5-1-0 OT) has played in the goal in six of the last eight Suns overtime games. He lost his first OT game 7-6 to McCall in March 2004, and has won five straight since. Tonight was the first Suns OT shootout victory since March 2, 2004 when the Suns nipped the Connecticut Camels 4-3 behind Thomson. The Suns are now 5-7 in 12 shootouts since 1998. And the home team is 29-22-20 in 71 OT games over 32 seasons. Baranzelli has scored the last two OT winners for the Suns. Here is a list of game-winning OT scorers in Suns history: Paul Baranzelli 2, Jamie Ellison 2, John Finnegan 2, Kurt Wenzell 2, Phil Hoene 2, Paul Cartmill 2, Ryan Enrico 2, Vilnis Nikolaisons 1, Eric Demment 1, Luke Smith 1, Brian Watts 1, Tom Forti 1, Dale Johnson 1, Mark Broz 1, Pat Kearney 1, Rip Kirby 1, Terry Heneghan 1, Chas Riopel 1, Brian Saksa 1, Beets Johnson 1, Phil Hebert 1 and Sean O'Connell 1....After Adam Swain left the game with a concussion, Suns mix-and-match forward lines were Blake Jenson-Ryan McDonald-Jon Duval, Ryan Enrico-Jamie Ellison-Vilnis Nikolaisons, John Miller-Billy
Tryder-Scott Winkler with Charles Friedman filling in. After Ivars Muzis broke his leg, Eric Demment suffered a concussion on a big mid-ice collision eight minutes into the second period. That left the defensemen as Chris Warrington, Paul Baranzelli, Josh Jacobson and Trevor Thomas with John Stevens taking some shifts........Philly goalie Mike Viscuse, a 6-2, 210-pounder, played goalie for St. Joseph's University in Phildelphia and then became arguably the best roller hockey goalie in America for the Marple Gladiators of the Major League Roller Hockey League. Viscuse was the Gladiators MVP in 2004.....
SUNS 5, INDEPENDENCE 4
Saturday, JAN. 6
Philadelphia Independence 2 1 1 4
Sun Valley Suns 1 3 1 5
FIRST PERIOD—(1) Philadelphia, Rob Shaner (Adam Lewis, Ricky Podulka), 7:49, power play goal. (2) Philadelphia, Matt Ciancia (Lewis), 12:24. (3) SV, Paul Baranzelli 10 (John Stevens), 14:12.
SECOND PERIOD—(4) SV, Scott Winkler 1 (Jamie Ellison, goalie Colin Zulianello), 10:35, power play goal. (5) SV, Ryan Enrico 9 (Vilnis Nikolaisons, Jami James), 16:36. (6) SV, Nikolaisons 4 (unassisted), 16:47. (7) Philadelphia, Martin Galstyan (Lewis, Ciancia), 17:00.
THIRD PERIOD—(8) Philadelphia, Ross Cowan (Galstyan), 14:52. (9) SV, Winkler 2 (Chris Warrington), 19:48, power play and game-winning goal.
SHOTS ON GOAL—Philadelphia 11-16-9 for 36; Sun Valley 14-20-10 for 44.
GOALIES—Philadelphia, Mike Viscuse (39 saves); SV, Colin Zulianello (32 saves, 4-0-0 record).
OFFICIALS—Referee, Bobby Noyes; linesmen, John Heinrich and Eric Wingard.
NOTES—The Independence lineup was filled with former Division 1 college hockey players including captain Ross Cowan, who was Penn State's leading scorer in 1992-93 and still sits in fourth place all-time on the Nittany Lions all-time points and goals list. Ryan Wick also played for Penn State, while Mike Weyermann, Adam Lewis and Cliff Demmer were University of Delaware skaters. Martin Galstyan was twice an All-PAC 8 first-team selection for the UCLA hockey team. Galstyan, Cowan and Matt Ciancia formed Philly's main forward line.....Suns goalie Colin Zulianello positively robbed Weyermann with his glove at the corner of the net five minutes into the second period. Weyermann shook his head in disbelief at the save....The Suns were 3-for-14 on the power play for the weekend and Philly was 2-for-15. For the season the Suns are 16-for-51 on the power play compared to 6-for-66 for opponents. And the Suns have 10 shorthanded goals in just eight games—three apiece by Nikolaisons and Baranzelli.....Weekend penalty minutes were Sun Valley 64 and Philly 42.... Tonight's Suns lines were Blake Jenson-Ryan McDonald-Scott Winkler, Ryan Enrico-Jamie Ellison-Vilnis Nikolaisons, John Stevens-Billy Tryder-Charles Friedman, Frank Salvoni-Caleb Baukol-D.W. Cook. Jon Duval dropped back to help on defense with Baranzelli, captain Chris Warrington, Jami James and Trevor Thomas .....Leading the Suns weekend scoring parade with 4 points apiece were Jamie Ellison (0-4), Nikolaisons (2-2) and George Jacket winner Baranzelli (4-0). The Ellison forward line accounted for 11 of the 26 Suns weekend points....Fourth-year Suns wing and current team scoring leader Ryan Enrico (45 goals, 54 assists for 99 points) pulled within a single point of the 100-point century mark....Linesman John Heinrich broke a blade and left the ice late in the second period, but returned in the third..... Sun Valley improved its advantage to 6-0 in the three-year hockey series with Philadelphia. Five of the six games have been extremely close, the Suns winning 5-3, 5-2, 7-6 (OT), 5-4 and 6-5 (OT shootout) in addition to an 8-1 blowout in 2005. .....The Suns are looking forward to this weekend's trip to Wyoming. Last February the Suns enjoyed their best ever Jackson Hole trip when they swept the Moose on their home ice for the first time, by scores of 5-3 and 4-3. Two weeks later, however, the Moose returned the favor and snapped Sun Valley's season-best eight-game winning streak with 4-3 and 5-3 wins in Sun Valley.
