The Sun Valley Suns, traveling with 13 players, lost a 13-goal game on Friday the 13th at McCall and the weekend visit to Manchester Ice and Event Centre got worse from there.
Deep with former professional hockey players and collegians, McCall poured it on during the third periods both nights and swept the visiting Suns 8-5 and 9-2 stretching Sun Valley's losing skid to three as the 2008-09 season winds down.
Northern Michigan collegiate star Darin Olver, 24, of McCall did the most damage with a five-goal night Saturday and a weekend scoring total of 11 points. The Suns had no answer for the speed and quickness of British Columbia native Olver, a second-round NHL draft pick and the 36th overall selection in 2004.
Olver is a son of former Idaho Steelheads head coach John Olver, who guided the Boise-based WCHL minor leaguers to the Kelly Cup title in 2004. The young man teamed up with Steelheads Hall of Famer Cal Ingraham (10 points last weekend) to wreak havoc with the Suns.
Billy Tryder led the Suns with three goals for the weekend and a pair of goals Friday night when the Suns battled back from 2-0 and 4-2 deficits into a 5-5 tie on third-period goals by Vilnis Nikolaisons and Cody Proctor. But McCall's Ingraham, Brett Gallagher and Olver scored goals in the final five minutes to seal the deal for the Mountaineers.
Team captain and defenseman Chris Warrington led the Suns in weekend scoring with five assists.
The Suns (8-10-0) have this weekend off and then wrap up their 2008-09 season by hosting goalie Bobby Farrelly's East Coast Gutter Snipes Friday and Saturday, March 27-28 on resort ice. Check today's Express Web site for a weekend game summary from the McCall series and updated Suns statistics.