Former Brigham Young University Most Valuable Player Tommy Champi, 21, enjoyed a four-goal night Friday as the visiting Utah Dawgs captured the first game of a two-game series with the Sun Valley Suns by a score of 8-4.
The Suns (9-5-0) bounced back Saturday with a lopsided win of their own at Sun Valley Skating Center—a 9-2 rout of the Dawgs as Charles Friedman, Cody Proctor and Billy Tryder each scored twice. It was a chippy series with 100 penalty minutes whistled.
Veteran Jamie Ellison (7 assists, 8 points) led the Suns scoring for the weekend and center Tryder added five points, as did Proctor and wing Jon Duval. With many veterans not on the ice, new players like Sinjin Thomas and Matt Ward stepped up and played well.
The Suns are back in action Friday and Saturday, Feb. 26-27 against Bozeman (Mt.) Hockey Club. Saturday's game is a benefit for the Sawtooth United F.C. (SUFC) youth soccer program. The first 20 SUFC players at the ticket booth will receive a free SUFC aluminum water bottle on Saturday night.
Opening faceoffs are 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday as the 2009-10 Suns season narrows down to its final two weekends and four games. Check today's Express Web site for a Suns-Dawgs summary from Feb. 19-20 and updated team statistics.
Benefit for Ivars Muzis coming March 5-6
Former Suns skater Steve McCoy is organizing a weekend benefit for 12th-year Sun Valley defenseman Ivars Muzis. Activities will be held at the rink and downtown Ketchum in conjunction with the season ending March 5-6 Suns series against Seattle/Spokane.
Muzis, 36, learned last week that a propane explosion destroyed the home of his parents near Riga, Latvia. His mother suffered critical burns, McCoy said. Muzis left Thursday for Latvia and his return to Ketchum is unknown. The benefits will raise money to help Muzis deal with the crisis.
Yoga, SunValley.com in Gund Cup final next Monday
Yoga College (7-6) and SunValley.com (5-7-1) will play for the Gund Cup Senior Hockey League tournament title Monday, March 1 on resort ice.
The strong goaltending of Mat Gershater plus goals by Caleb Baukol (2) and John Kearney Jr. helped SV.com upset top-seeded Morgan's Fine Finishers (7-6) by a 3-1 score Monday. Phil Hebert staked Morgan's to an early 1-0 lead.
Yoga College broke a scoreless tie with third-period goals by Taylor Rothgeb, Kris Webster and Noah Loyd and ousted #2 SV Auto Club/Grumpy's (6-6-1) by an identical 3-1 score. Cody Proctor was the goal scorer for Grumpy's.
Suns Hockey Summary
DAWGS 8, SUNS 4
friday, FEBRUARY 19
Utah Dawgs 1 4 3 8
Sun Valley Suns 0 3 1 4
FIRST PERIOD—(1) Utah, Tommy Champi (Cade Cote), 0:37.
SECOND PERIOD—(2) Utah, Caleb Cote (Vince McIsaac), 4:58, power play goal. (3) SV, Cody Proctor 6 (Charles Friedman, Blake Jenson), 5:23. (4) SV, Josh Jacobson 2 (Jamie Ellison, goalie Mat Gershater), 7:14. (5) Utah, Zeph Fagergren (Weston Nash), 15:05. (6) SV, Zak Greenawalt 1 (Ellison, Billy Tryder), 16:54. (7) Utah, Champi (Zach Smith, Bryan Larsen), 18:08. (8) Utah, Cade Cote (Caleb Cote), 18:25.
THIRD PERIOD—(9) Utah, Jeff Jiron (Larsen), 3:49. (10) Utah, Champi (Larsen), 7:29, hat trick goal. (11) SV, Tryder 3 (Duval, Ellison), 8:33. (12) Utah, Champi (Jiron), 16:10.
SHOTS ON GOAL—Utah 16-14-14 for 44; Sun Valley 16-23-16 for 55.
GOALIES—Utah, Sam McPherson (51 saves); Sun Valley, Mat Gershater (36 saves, 0-1-0 record).
OFFICIALS—Eric Wingard and Pat Ballou.
NOTES—Scoring his first Suns goalie was rookie defenseman Zak Greenawalt.......Suns defenseman Ivars Muzis left Thursday for his native Latvia, where his parents were injured in a propane explosion at their home outside of Riga.....Utah's Tommy Champi, 21, scored 4 goals tonight. A 6-0, 205-pound right shot, he was a former Most Valuable Player for the Brigham Young University Cougars hockey team. Growing up in California, he played AAA hockey and then skated for the Utah Junior Wildcats. After high school he played for the Butte (Mt.) Roughriders and also for a team in Manitoba, Canada......Two different players from each team picked up 5-minute fighting major penalties tonight as the opening game of the two-game series got a little testy, certainly more so than many of the Suns games this season. The combatants were Taylor Rothgeb and Josh Jacobson of the Suns, and Cade Cote and Caleb Cote of the Dawgs.
SUNS 9, DAWGS 2
SATURday, FEBRUARY 20
Utah Dawgs 0 1 1 2
Sun Valley Suns 4 2 3 9
FIRST PERIOD—(1) SV, Charles Friedman 4 (Matt Ward, Cody Proctor), 3:02. (2) SV, Billy Tryder 4 (Jon Duval, Jamie Ellison), 3:22. (3) SV, Proctor 7 (unassisted), 4:12. (4) SV, Tryder 5 (Ellison, Duval), 18:36.
SECOND PERIOD—(5) SV, Duval 7 (Eric Demment, Ellison), 0:12, power play goal. (6) SV, Sinjin Thomas 2 (Ellison, Duval), 2:35, power play goal. (7) Utah, Dustin Cowell (Zeph Fagergren, Jeff Jiron), 17:50, power play goal.
THIRD PERIOD—(8) SV, Ellison 8 (Tryder, Josh Jacobson), 4:11. (9) SV, Proctor 8 (Sam Samudio, Friedman), 5:45. (10) Utah, Weston Nash (Tommy Champi, Cade Cote), 12:48. (11) SV, Friedman 5 (Proctor, Jacobson), 19:52.
SHOTS ON GOAL—Utah 9-8-13 for 30; Sun Valley 17-16-13 for 46.
GOALIES—Utah, Sam McPherson (38 saves); Sun Valley, Ryan Thomson (28 saves, 8-4-0 record).
OFFICIALS—Pat Ballou and Curt Martin.
NOTES—The Dawgs collected 39 penalty minutes tonight including 10-minute misconducts to Tommy Champi and Bryan Larsen and a game misconduct issued to Jacob Beard. Sun Valley's Noah Loyd got into a scrap with Beard and Loyd earned an early trip to the locker room as well. At one point late in the second period, the Dawgs had only two players on the bench.......12th-year center Billy Tryder (118-150 for 268) enjoyed a 5-point weekend and pulled within a point of dislodging Kurt Wenzell (269 points) for eighth place on the all-time Suns scoring list.......The skater passed by Tryder for ninth place last weekend, Jimmy "Beets" Johnson (93-170 for 263), filled in on defense for the Suns tonight. The former New York Rangers equipment manager and 13-year Suns wing from Minnesota said it was his first time in 12 years suiting up and playing in a Suns game, dating back to March 1998. Beets said he wore #14 in honor of his former Suns teammate, John "Cub" Burke. And "Cub" might have to ask Beets to wear the jersey more often. On Sunday at Riviera Maya, Mexico, professional golf caddy Burke helped his current pro Cameron Beckman win the $3.6 million Mayakoba Classic tournament and its $648,000 first-place prize. It was only the third PGA victory for Beckman, 40, a graduate of Burnsville (Mn.) High School and a Minneapolis native. With the victory, Beckman climbed all the way up to 21st on the PGA Tour FedEx Cup leaderboard with $659,456 and 251 points.......Suns forward lines were Jon Duval-Jamie Ellison-Billy Tryder, Cody Proctor-Charles Friedman-Matt Ward, Blake Jenson-Caleb Baukol-Taylor Rothgeb......Suns #1 goalie Ryan Thomson was back in the net, having traveled to Vancouver to watch a couple of Olympic preliminary hockey games featuring Norway, Canada and the U.S.......Jamie Ellison was the Suns weekend top scorer with 1 goal and 7 assists for 8 points. Scoring 5 points apiece were Cody Proctor, Jon Duval and Tryder.....Captain Vilnis Nikolaisons missed the weekend series because of a wedding......Tonight's game was a benefit for Sun Valley Ballet.
2009-10 Sun Valley Suns
(9-5-0 overall: 9-5-0 home)
PLAYER GAMES GOALS AST. PTS. PMIN
Jamie Ellison 13 8 19 27 12.0
Vilnis Nikolaisons 12 10 16 26 4.0
Jon Duval 14 7 16 23 4.0
Cody Proctor 14 8 12 20 6.0
Blake Jenson 14 5 12 17 6.0
Ryan Enrico 9 8 5 13 4.0
Charles Friedman 11 5 7 12 0.0
Billy Tryder 8 5 6 11 0.0
Eric Demment 8 5 6 11 18.0
Josh Jacobson 13 2 7 9 19.0
Jordan Pritchett 2 4 3 7 2.0
John Stevens 8 4 3 7 0.0
Jeremy Mylymok 4 3 4 7 7.0
Taylor Rothgeb 14 1 5 6 5.0
Trevor Thomas 10 1 4 5 10.0
Matt Ward 9 3 1 4 4.0
Ivars Muzis 11 2 2 4 10.0
Ryan McDonald 2 1 3 4 0.0
Sinjin Thomas 5 2 1 3 2.0
Chris Warrington 4 2 1 3 0.0
Kris Webster 7 0 2 2 6.0
John Miller 2 1 1 2 4.0
Zak Greenawalt 12 1 0 1 8.0
Bryan Winkler 1 1 0 1 0.0
Bobby Sloper 5 1 0 1 0.0
Noah Loyd 10 0 1 1 7.0
Colby Stoecklein 1 0 1 1 0.0
Mat Gershater 1 0 1 1 0.0
Sam Samudio 1 0 1 1 0.0
Ryan Thomson 11 0 0 0 0.0
Blake King 1 0 0 0 7.0
Cooper Miller 10 0 0 0 2.0
Danny Ward 2 0 0 0 0.0
Tony Benson 1 0 0 0 0.0
Jimmy Johnson 1 0 0 0 0.0
Peter Stevenson 1 0 0 0 2.0
Caleb Baukol 1 0 0 0 2.0
GOALTENDER GAMES GOALS W-L AVG.
Ryan Thomson 11.5 55 8-4-0 4.73
Colby Stoecklein 1 2 1-0-0 2.00
Mat Gershater 1 8 0-1-0 8.00
Tony Benson 0.5 5 0-0-0 10.00
Shots—Thomson 451, Gershater 44, Stoecklein 29, Benson 23. Saves—Thomson 395, Gershater 36, Stoecklein 27, Benson 18. Shootout saves—Thomson 2. Shootout goals allowed—Thomson 1. Shutouts—Ryan Thomson 1. Empty net goals—0.
SCORE BY PERIODS 1ST 2ND 3RD OT TOT
Opposition 28 25 16 2 71, 5.1
Sun Valley 25 33 31 1 90, 6.4
INDIVIDUAL MARKS
Two-goal games (12)—Eric Demment 2, Jamie Ellison 2, Cody Proctor 2, Vilnis Nikolaisons 1, Jon Duval 1, Jeremy Mylymok 1, Charles Friedman 1, Billy Tryder 1, Ryan Enrico 1.
Three-goal hat tricks (or more)—Vilnis Nikolaisons 1, Jordan Pritchett 1.
Game-winning goals (1)—Vilnis Nikolaisons 1.
Power play goals (10-28, 36%)—Vilnis Nikolaisons 2, Jon Duval 1, Sinjin Thomas 1, Ryan Enrico 1, Billy Tryder 1, Jeremy Mylymok 1, Charles Friedman 1, Chris Warrington 1, Jordan Pritchett 1.
Power play goals (opposition): 10-43, (23%).
Suns shorthanded goals (2)—Vilnis Nikolaisons 2.
Shorthanded goals (opposition): 0.
Season penalty minutes: SV 153, opponents 139.
GAME RESULTS
Total record: 9-5-0
Record in 1-goal games: 1-2-0
Record in overtime: 1-2-0
Games scoring 9 or more goals: 2
Games scoring 7 or more goals: 7
December 11 (H) Park City Pioneers 8, Sun Valley 7 (OT)
December 12 (H) Sun Valley 8, Park City Pioneers 5
January 1 (H) McCall Mountaineers 7, Sun Valley 6 (OT shootout)
January 2 (H) Sun Valley 7, McCall Mountaineers 2
January 8 (H) Sun Valley 5, Cache Valley Trappers 0
January 9 (H) Sun Valley 4, Cache Valley Trappers 2
January 15 (H) Sun Valley 6, Vancouver Moto Ice 4
January 16 (H) Sun Valley 9, Vancouver Moto Ice 4
January 22 (H) Sun Valley 7, East Coast Gutter Snipes 6 (OT)
January 23 (H) East Coast Gutter Snipes 11, Sun Valley 6
February 12 (H) Sun Valley 8, Missoula Cutthroats 6
February 13 (H) Missoula Cutthroats 6, Sun Valley 4
February 19 (H) Utah Dawgs 8, Sun Valley 4
February 20 (H) Sun Valley 9, Utah Dawgs 2
