There was no stopping the Sun Valley Bantam youth hockey team Dec. 28-30 during the 2007 Holiday Invitational Ice Blast "B" tournament at Boise's Ice World arena.
Sun Valley, traveling with the bare minimum of nine players, won five games in dominating fashion and captured the championship of the four-team "B" Bantam (ages 13-14) tournament.
The young Suns of coaches Ryan Enrico and Nicole Perkins outscored opponents 31-3 with three shutouts and out-shot their rivals by a lopsided 154-55 margin.
In round-robin action Sun Valley pounded Boise Junior Steelheads 6-1, blanked Ogden (Utah) Junior Wildcats 8-0 and got past Provo (Utah) 6-2.
Top-seeded Sun Valley added another 8-0 victory over Ogden Junior Wildcats in the Sunday morning semi-final. In the championship game, Cooper Hanley, Tom Crosby and Charlie Evans scored as the young Suns beat Boise 3-0.
Sun Valley goalie Cassidy Carson (52 saves in 5 games) stopped all 13 Boise Junior Steelhead shots in the finale.
Tom Crosby scored four goals in one game and Karel Kaiser recorded a three-assist effort but most of the Suns scoring was evenly balanced.
Scoring totals: Tom Crosby 10 goals/2 assists, Doogie King 5/5, Charlie Evans 5/4, Cooper Hanley 5/4, Karel Kaiser 0/6, Ian Murphy 1/3, Davis Hague 2/2 and Rickie Jeneson 3/1.
The three-day "B" Squirts (9-10), PeeWees (11-12) and Bantam tournament was sponsored by the Boise Youth Hockey Association Junior Steelheads.
Runner-up in Idaho Falls
Hot the heels of winning the Boise Holiday Invitational, the Sun Valley Bantams (11-5-1 overall, 65-39 goals against) finished second in the Idaho Falls Bantam Tournament staged Jan. 4-6 in eastern Idaho.
Playing in a field of eight, the Suns beat Idaho Falls A 5-2 Saturday morning, and skated to a 2-2 tie against McCall that afternoon. Charlie Evans scored with 42 seconds remaining to salvage the draw. Goalie Cassidy Carson came up big with 38 saves for Sun Valley.
On Sunday, Sun Valley recorded its first-ever victory over Wasatch (Utah), beating the Grizzlies 3-2 on another clutch score by Evans in the third period.
The Suns faced off against the Eagles in the championship and had a 3-2 lead with less than two minutes remaining. Idaho Falls pulled its goalie and scored to make it 3-3 at the 1:15 mark, and netted the game-winning goal with 10 seconds left. Doogie King and Evans finished with six points apiece and Cooper Hanley had four.
In updated stats, Bantam scoring leaders are King (13 goals, 9 assists), Crosby (15/5), Evans (12/8) and Hanley (11/6).
