After starting its weekend with two losses, the Sun Valley Midget high school hockey team came on strong to finish with a tie and a solid 3-1 victory at a three-team Midget round-robin Saturday and Sunday at Sun Valley Skating Center.
The dominant team with a 3-0-1 record, 19-7 scoring advantage and 146-74 edge in the shots department was the Boise-based Junior Steelheads AA squad coached by minor league legend Cal Ingraham of the University of Maine.
But Sun Valley started its comeback in the six-game weekend series with a 4-4 tie against the Junior Steelheads Sunday at noon—goalie Cassidy Carson making 39 saves for the home Sun Valley sextet. Ian Murphy tallied the equalizer with 4:18 left to play.
Sun Valley finished up with a 3-1 triumph over the Idaho Falls Midget AA team later Sunday. The Suns outshot Idaho Falls 40-26 and got 25 saves by goalie Teagan Foster. Murphy tallied the eventual winner early in the second and Charlie Evans added an insurance goal later in the period.
In other games, the Junior Steelheads beat Sun Valley 4-1 despite a power play goal by David Dredge; and Idaho Falls eked out a 5-4 victory over Sun Valley. In that one, the Suns stormed back from a 5-1 deficit with three power-play goals—by Davis Hague, Tom Crosby and Murphy. Sun Valley owned a 56-29 shooting advantage.
The Junior Steelheads, led by the scoring of Shawn Grove (7 goals, 3 assists in 4 games), also beat Idaho Falls twice by scores of 5-2 and 6-0. On the Steelies roster was former Sun Valley skater Drew Punnett.
Here are Sun Valley's weekend scoring totals: Murphy 3 goals/0 assists; Crosby 2/1; Morgan Pike 1/2; Evans 1/2; Dredge 1/1; Anthony Martin 1/1; Jackson Bates 0/2; Alexander MacMillan 2/0; Jimmy Hague 0/2; Davis Hague 1/0; captain Niels McMahon 0/1; and Tommy Heinrich 0/1.
Suns head coach Chris Benson was assisted by Robert Crosby and Tim Jeneson.
Squirts at Idaho Falls
Sun Valley Squirts manager Johnny Galgano reported the 9-10 year olds traveled to Idaho Falls for their first tournament.
After being blanked 5-0 by Boise, the Squirts started to find their game and the net in a 5-3 loss to Idaho Falls Gold. There were goals by Kyle Furlong (assisted by Jett Erickson), Sam Hebert (Alec Broman) and Erickson (Broman).
Early Sunday morning the Squirts notched their first win against Jackson Hole (Wyo.) Brown by a score of 5-3. The winners got goals by Sam Hebert, Erickson (2) and Tiernan Naghsh (2). Credited with two assists were Charlie Stumph, Ike Buxton and Luke Marcouiller. Then Sun Valley ran away with its final game against Jackson Hole Gold 9-5. Goals came from Charlie Stumph, Colby Whitehead (2), Broman, Erickson (3), Will Hebert and Naghsh. Assisting were Hebert, Erickson (2), Naghsh, Stumph and Broman.
