If you like lots of scoring and hat tricks galore, you positively loved Friday night's men's hockey shootout between the Sun Valley Suns and first-time visitor Missoula Cutthroats at Sun Valley Skating Center.
Sun Valley and Missoula punched back and forth through 60 minutes of high-powered offense and put 97 shots on goal and 23 goals on the board. It was the second-highest scoring game in 32 years and 762 Suns games.
"It was a crazy night," said Suns coach Chris Benson.
Three-goal hat tricks are a rarity in hockey but there were four of them Friday—two by Sun Valley (Paul Baranzelli and Ryan McDonald, 5 of the goals coming on power plays) and two by Missoula (Mike Roesch and Dustin Thompson).
Trailing 7-3 in the second period and 11-10 with five minutes left, the Suns (20-0-0) kept their winning streak alive when fourth-year center Ryan McDonald scored two power-play goals in a 72-second span—his game winner coming with less than two minutes remaining in the game.
Untouched, speedy McDonald circled the Missoula cage, squared up and rifled a low wrist shot for the equalizer at the 16:54 mark. The Suns, wrapping up another productive night with five power-play goals, benefited from an interference penalty. McDonald took a Baranzelli pass in the slot, swiveled on a dime and drilled the winner high into the net for his fourth goal of the evening.
McDonald had a spring in his step after the game winner, which gave relief goalie Ryan Thomson (2 assists Friday) his 11th win of the season.
And "George Jacket" winner Thomson (44 saves) made it a personal 12-0-0 Saturday with a rather routine 8-3 victory behind another hat trick, this one by Ryan Enrico.
"I wasn't happy giving up 11 goals last night but we were a little more disciplined tonight," said Benson. "Obviously getting two more wins was awesome. And Missoula had a decent group of players. We hope to schedule them early next season for a home-and-home."
The only downer of the weekend was a separated shoulder suffered by first-year wing Adam Swain that ended the talented player's season.
Sun Valley travels to Park City, Utah for a rematch with the Silver Kings Friday and Saturday, March 2-3, and then finishes up the regular-season slate against the Boston Bulldogs March 9-10 on resort ice.
Coach Benson said last-minute logistics and the unavailability of some players has caused the team to rule out a trip to the 2007 Labatt Blue/US Adult National Championships Full-Check Tournament March 29-April 1 at Fond du Lac, Wisc.
"We hope to have a good nucleus of our players back next year and we'll see about planning ahead and going to nationals then," said Benson, encouraged by a vote of confidence from Suns benefactor George Gund III during the marvelous New York St. Nicks series Feb. 16-17.
So the Boston series March 9-10 will be the final games for a Suns team that can become only the second unbeaten squad in team annals. With four wins Sun Valley has a chance to become the first-ever Suns undefeated-untied team.
For a complete hockey summary from the Missoula series and updated Suns season stats, check out this week's Express Web site.
Denver University?s Adam Swain gave the Sun Valley Suns a real shot in the arm with his play on center Ryan McDonald?s line this winter. Swain, stick-handling here Friday against the Missoula Cutthroat defense, separated his shoulder and had his season end a little early. Photo by Willy Cook
