The Meridian Warriors, stacked with solid players and averaging over four goals a game, captured the championship of the four-team Sun Valley Midget Invitational youth hockey tournament Sunday at Sun Valley Skating Center.
Meridian (4-0-0, 17 goals scored, 6 against), rallied from an early 1-0 deficit and beat the Jackson Hole (Wyo.) Beavers 3-1 in Sunday's title game. A pair of even-strength goals by Meridian's Nick Bartholomew lifted the Warriors to victory.
The Warriors dominated, out-shooting Jackson (2-2-0, 13-11 goals against) by a 46-14 count. Beavers goalie Jordan Grove stopped 43 of 46 shots.
Sun Valley's Midgets coached by Andrew Hebert played the perfect host, going 0-4-0 in the competitive field of teams. The Suns (7-21 goals against) lost 6-2 to the Idaho Falls Eagles (2-2-0, 16-15 goals) in the consolation final. David Dredge and Morgan Pike scored Suns goals in that one.
Results of other Suns games: Jackson Hole 7-2 over Sun Valley; Meridian Warriors 3-0 over the Suns; and Idaho Falls 5-3 over the home team. And, in other games, it was Jackson 3-2 over Idaho Falls; Meridian 4-2 over Jackson Hole; and Meridian 7-3 over Idaho Falls.
Here is the Suns weekend scoring summary:
Niels McMahon 2 goals/0 assists; Tommy Heinrich 1/2; Jimmy Hague 1/1; Morgan Pike 1/1; David Dredge 1/0; Rune Haavik 1/1; Charlie Evans 0/1; Ian Murphy 0/1; and Tony Martin 0/1. Also skating were Jackson Bates, Doug King, Alexander MacMillan, Zak Sjoberg and Latner Straley.
Suns goalie Cassidy Carson was busy between the pipes, facing 107 shots in four games and making 86 saves.