There was no blackout of ice hockey excitement at Sun Valley Skating Center on the day after Christmas. Hockey fans had a good time watching the annual holiday exhibition between the Future Suns youngsters and Sun Valley Suns.
On Saturday night, the Suns were the solid starters and the Futures were the strong finishers. The Suns scored three unanswered goals in the first period and hung on to nip the fast-finishing Futures 4-3. Coaches were John "Cub" Burke for the Suns and Chris Benson for the Futures.
The game raised money for Sun Valley Youth Hockey's Brett Sammis Scholarship Fund.
Staking the Suns to a 3-0 lead were goals by Eric Demment, Sun Valley youth hockey product Noah Loyd of the Suns and Vilnis Nikolaisons, Suns all-time leading scorer. Goalie Ryan Thomson played only the first period and stopped all 15 Futures shots he saw for the Suns.
A power-play goal by Spencer Brendel got the Futures on the scoreboard early in the second period. The Suns answered with Demment's second goal for a 4-1 lead. Third-period goals by Matt Ward (penalty shot) and Sinjin Thomas rounded out the Futures' scoring.
Billy Cook (34 shots, 33 saves) did an outstanding 40-minute job in relief of Futures starting goalie Bobby Farrelly, and Colby Stoecklein succeeded Thomson for the Suns.
Justin Taylor was Futures captain. Others were Jordan Pritchett, Matt Alloway, Danny Ward, Travis Amick, Blake King, Jason Heiner, David Dredge, Patrick McMahon, Kyle Cole, Niels McMahon, Jackson Bates, Morgan Pike, Brandon Brocklebank and Carl Jablonski.
Suns resume with McCall Friday
Greeting the New Year with a bang, the Suns (1-1) will resume their 2009-10 season Friday and Saturday, Jan. 1-2 against longtime rival McCall Mountaineers at 7 p.m. at Sun Valley Skating Center.
McCall and Sun Valley played four times last season, home-and-home, the Mountaineers taking the final three meetings 3-2, 8-5 and 9-2, and the Suns taking the first New Year's weekend game 7-6 in a sudden death overtime shootout—Jeremy Mylymok netting the game winner.
The Mountaineers lead the six-year, 30-game series 17-12-1 and have won nine of 16 games between the teams on Sun Valley ice. It's the only two-game series of the winter for the two teams, McCall having set a March 19-20 visit to Wyoming to play the Jackson Hole Moose (2-2).
Suns Hockey Summary
suns 4, future suns 3
SATURday, december 26
Future Suns 0 1 2 3
Sun Valley Suns 3 1 0 4
FIRST PERIOD—(1) SV, Eric Demment (Vilnis Nikolaisons), 3:08. (2) SV, Noah Loyd (Ivars Muzis), 9:31. (3) SV, Nikolaisons (Zak Greenawalt), 14:41.
SECOND PERIOD—(4) Future Suns, Spencer Brendel (Justin Taylor), 3:18, power play goal. (5) SV, Demment (Nikolaisons, Trevor Thomas), 10:52.
THIRD PERIOD—(6) Future Suns, Matt Ward (unassisted), 3:18, penalty shot goal. (7) Future Suns, Sinjin Thomas (Danny Ward, Morgan Pike), 7:30.
SHOTS ON GOAL—Future Suns 15-16-15 for 46; Sun Valley 15-16-18 for 49.
GOALIES—Future Suns, Bobby Farrelly (20 minutes, 3 goals, 15 shots and 12 saves) and Billy Cook (40 minutes, 1 goal, 34 shots and 33 saves; Sun Valley, Ryan Thomson (20 minutes, 0 goals, 15 shots and 15 saves) and Colby Stoecklein (40 minutes, 3 goals, 31 shots and 28 saves).
Future Suns goalie Billy Cook of Ketchum, helped in front of the crease by defenseman David Dredge, kept his team in Saturday’s holiday exhibition game at Sun Valley Skating Center until the Future Suns could rally from a 4-1 deficit and make the game close at 4-3.
