Rhode Island native Bobby Farrelly wasn’t really a busy man between the pipes playing Division 1 men’s ice hockey for the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) Engineers back in the 1977-78 college season.
Farrelly played goalie in one game that season and got blitzed for four goals in 11 minutes. He was only 20 years old back then. Fortunately Farrelly has gotten better with age.
Wearing his #31 RPI jersey and still moving with catlike reflexes at age 50, Farrelly made an unbelievable 62 saves Saturday night and kept his Future Suns team in the game during an exhibition match with the Sun Valley Suns at Sun ValleySkatingCenter.
The Future Suns, made up of homegrown Sun Valley Youth Hockey players half of Farrelly’s age, stormed back from a 6-3 second-period deficit and traded goals with the Suns in the third stanza before falling short in the final score of 8-7.
Farrelly, a noted Hollywood director, producer and writer who has a home north of Ketchum, faced a total of 70 shots—over twice as many as his counterpart, #1 Suns goalie Ryan Thomson (26 saves).
Future Suns captain Ryan McDonald and Blake King each scored two goals to go with singles by co-captain Justin Taylor, Spencer Brendel and Jordan Pritchett. Assists went to Taylor (4), Matt Alloway (2), Pritchett, Travis Amick, Brendal and McDonald.
The favored Suns erased an early 3-2 deficit with four unanswered goals in the second—two by Cody Lampl, one each by Blake Jenson and defenseman Eric Demment. Jenson ended up scoring two goals. Scoring single goals were Caleb Baukol, Bryan Winkler (power play) and Billy Tryder.
Credited with Suns assists were captain Chris Warrington (2), Vilnis Nikolaisons (2), Jamie Ellison (2), Tryder, Cody Proctor and Demment.
Rounding out the Future Suns were alternate captain Tyson Reynoso, Danny Ward, Max Kwok, Taylor Rothgeb, Sinjin Thomas, Patrick McMahon, Jason Heiner, David Dredge, Kyle Cole, Zak Bloomfield, goalie Farrelly and Matt Ward. Coach was Andrew Hebert, assisted by Austin McCann and Joey Sides.
Saturday’s game was part of a two-game weekend series.
Friday night, the Suns defeated the Suns Alumni 5-3. The Suns jumped off to a 2-0 first-period lead but the Alumni stormed back with three goals in the second period. The Suns stashed three unanswered goals on the board in the third.
John Stevens, Paul Baranzelli, Vilnis Nikolaisons, Matt Alloway and Jon Duval scored the Suns goals, assists going to Jamie Ellison (2), Eric Demment and Nikolaisons. Alumni scorers were Steve McCoy, Scott Winkler and Billy Tryder.
Other Alumni skaters Friday were Terry Heneghan, Bobby Noyes, Mats Wilander, Tim Jeneson, John Miller, Frank Salvoni, Harry Weekes, Cody Lampl, Sean O’Connell, Peter Whitehead, Mike Punnett, Dave Hutchinson, Gunnar Whitehead, Tony Benson, David Stone and Farrelly.
The holiday exhibition games raised money for Sun Valley Youth Hockey and the Brett Sammis Scholarship. Officiating were John Heinrich, Eric Wingard, Chris Benson and Dave Patrie.
McCall Mountaineers due
The Suns (0-2) start their 2009 home campaign in earnest Friday and Saturday, Jan. 2-3 with a New Year’s weekend series against the McCall Mountaineers and their lineup of retired Idaho Steelhead minor league skaters.
Opening faceoffs are 7 p.m. each night at Sun ValleySkatingCenter. Friday’s benefit is the Blaine County Recreation District and Saturday’s benefit is for Hailey Ice Inc.
Sun Valley (12-6-0 last winter and 546-211-29 all-time) is planning four consecutive weekends of home hockey action in January starting with McCall and including Cache Valley (Utah) Jan. 9-10, Langley (B.C.) Jan. 16-17 and the Jackson Hole (Wyo.) Moose on Jan. 23-24.
Most recently, McCall split a home weekend series with the Jackson Hole Moose (7-1-0) Dec. 12-13 at Manchester Ice and Event Centre in McCall. McCall built a 4-1 lead in the Friday night game and withstood a 19-3 Moose shooting assault in the third period to prevail 5-4. On Saturday, the Moose posted a 4-0 victory.
Idaho Steelheads Hall of Famer Cal Ingraham, the former University of Maine star, usually leads McCall.
The Suns and Mountaineers met once last winter, over New Year’s weekend in Sun Valley. The Suns won the Friday game 6-3 and McCall rebounded Saturday for a 7-4 win.
In its sixth year, the series favors the Mountaineers 14-11-1 and McCall boasts an 8-6 edge on Sun Valley ice. But five of those McCall wins in Sun Valley came in the first two years of the rivalry, 2003-05. Since the Suns are 5-3 at home.
Future Suns skaters, from left, Travis Amick, Max Kwok and Danny Ward take a break be-fore taking on the Sun Valley Suns Saturday night at Sun Valley Skating Center. Photo by Willy Cook
