The Sun Valley Suns men's hockey team lost for the first time all season during a two-game weekend split at Park City Jan. 7-8, but the Suns may have gained a forward to help them for the rest of the season.
Massachusetts native Bryan O'Connell, 23, joined the Suns for their only road trip of the 2010-11 season at the Park City Pioneers last weekend. O'Connell scored two goals and two assists in the weekend set on the Utah ice sheet.
His third period shorthanded goal gave the Suns a 4-2 lead in a 5-3 win Saturday over the Pioneers. On Friday, the Suns got off the team bus a little slowly, spotted Park City a 6-0 lead and lost the opener 6-4.
O'Connell is best known locally for being a thorn in the side of the Suns while playing for Bobby Farrelly's East Coast Gutter Snipes. Three years ago, O'Connell was the weekend-high scorer with four goals and seven points in a 10-9 (OT) and 9-6 Snipes sweep of the Suns.
He teamed well with eighth-year Suns wing Ryan Enrico from Hoboken, N.J. Enrico (a team-best 4 goals, 6 assists season) scored twice in Saturday's win over the Pioneers and ended as the Suns weekend-high scorer with five points.
Enrico's first-period goal Saturday erased a 1-0 deficit and got the Suns going—as did a Chad Levitan shorthanded tally and another first-period goal by captain Vilnis Nikolaisons, on a pass from goalie Ryan Thomson (56 saves).
The Suns never did get going Friday night until the third period, when Cody Proctor, Taylor Rothgeb, O'Connell and Trevor Thomas scored goals in a three-and-a-half minute span to ease the embarrassment of their early 6-0 deficit.
It was a fairly combative series—seven players drawing game misconducts. They were Levitan, Danny Ward and Kris Webster for the Suns, and Scotty John, Eric Milliron, Thomas Gata and Chris Jeavons for Park City (4-5).
With his big weekend, Enrico (93 goals, 112 assists for 205 points) soared over 200 career points and tied Dale Johnson for 16th place on the all-time Suns scoring list. The Suns (5-1-0) continued to shine in the third periods of their games, outscoring foes 15-1, and continued to lag in the second periods, being outscored 12-4.
Next up: The Cache Valley Trappers from Logan, Utah visit for a two-game home series Jan. 14-15 at 7 p.m. each night at Sun Valley Skating Center. Saturday's game will benefit Sun Valley Ballet.
A couple of changes in the season schedule—Utah County Blizzard will return to Sun Valley for a Jan. 28-29 two-game set, replacing Vancouver Moto Ice from British Columbia. The Vancouver visit has been shifted to March 11-12 as the final two games of the season.
Check the Express Web site for a Park City game summary.
Suns Hockey Summary
Pioneers 6, Suns 4
Friday, JANUARY 7
Sun Valley Suns 0 0 4 4
ParkCity Pioneers 2 4 0 6
FIRST PERIOD—(1) Park City, Thomas Gata 1 (Aaron Dufford), 12:01. (2) Park City, Aaron Burrell 6 (Chris Jeavons), 15:32, shorthanded goal.
SECOND PERIOD—(3) Park City, Sean Baron 1 (Adam Blossey, Josh Angevine), 1:52. (4) Park City, Gata 2 (unassisted), 5:33, shorthanded goal. (5) Park City, Gata 3 (Baron), 13:16, power play and hat trick goal. (6) Park City, Michael Spawton 4 (Burrell), 15:26.
THIRD PERIOD—(7) SV, Cody Proctor 1 (unassisted), 12:49. (8) SV, Taylor Rothgeb 3 (Zak Greenawalt), 14:04. (9) SV, Bryan O'Connell 1 (Jon Duval, Ryan Enrico), 14:58. (10) SV, Trevor Thomas 1 (O'Connell, Enrico), 16:20.
GOALIES—Sun Valley, Ryan Thomson (29 saves, 4-1-0 record; Park City, Kyle Gover (18 saves, 4-1-0 record, first 2 periods) and Eric Moldenhauer (8 saves, 3rd period).
NOTES—Tonight was the first Suns game for 23-year-old Bryan O'Connell, best known to the Suns for playing on Bobby Farrelly's East Coast Gutter Snipes team on its 2008 and 2009 two-game visits to Sun Valley. Three years ago, O'Connell was the Snipes leading scorer with 4 goals and 3 assists in a thrilling 10-9 (OT) and 9-7 weekend sweep on Sun Valley ice. He had the hat trick in the overtime victory, before NHL great Igor Larionov tallied the OT game winner. O'Connell played hockey in his native Massachusetts at Coyle and Cassidy High School in Taunton. He then skated collegiately for the Castleton State Spartans in Vermont. The Suns hope to have O'Connell skating for them the rest of the winter.
SUNS 5, PIONEERS 3
Saturday, JANUARY 8
Sun Valley Suns 3 0 2 5
ParkCity Pioneers 1 1 1 3
FIRST PERIOD—(1) Park City, Michael Gee 1 (Sean Baron, Rob Christie), 1:10. (2) SV, Ryan Enrico 3 (Bryan O'Connell), 1:50. (3) SV, Chad Levitan 3 (Vilnis Nikolaisons), 15:13, shorthanded goal. (4) SV, Nikolaisons 2 (goalie Ryan Thomson), 19:03.
SECOND PERIOD—(5) Park City, Adam Blossey 1 (unassisted), 18:13, power play goal.
THIRD PERIOD—(6) SV, O'Connell 2 (Enrico), 7:11, shorthanded goal. (7) SV, Enrico 4 (Jon Duval, Matt Ward), 18:45, empty net goal. (8) Park City, Josh Angevine 1 (Christie, Scott McKay), 19:50.
GOALIES—Sun Valley, Ryan Thomson (27 saves, 5-1-0 record; Park City, Kyle Gover (33 saves, 4-2-0).
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NOTES—Suns captain Vilnis Nikolaisons (286 assists) is within 9 assists of the all-time Suns assists record held by defenseman Glenn Hunter (295). But all-time points leader Nikolaisons (172 goals) has a long way to go to break the all-time Suns goal scoring record of Bobby Noyes (195). Nikolaisons turned 36 on New Year's Eve and there has been talk this is his final Suns season......There were seven game misconducts issued this weekend, four to Park City and three to Sun Valley. Drawing game misconducts for the Pioneers were Chris Jeavons, Scotty John, Eric Milliron and Thomas Gate. Getting the gate for Sun Valley were Chad Levitan, Danny Ward and Kris Webster......The second periods in the six Suns games haven't been a pretty place to visit. Opponents are outscoring the Suns 12-4 in the second periods, while the Suns have a 15-1 advantage in the third periods.....The Suns were 0-for-14 on the power play this weekend, and Park City was 2-for-15. The Suns had 68 penalty minutes and Park City 53.....Through 6 games, the Suns have 184 penalty minutes and opponents have 100, while the Suns are 5-for-26 (19%) on the power play and opponents 8-for-45 (18%).
2010-11 Sun Valley Suns final statistics
(5-1-0 overall: 4-0-0 home, 1-1-0 away)
PLAYER GAMES GOALS AST. PTS. PMIN
Ryan Enrico 6 4 6 10 20.0
Jordan Pritchett 4 5 2 7 4.0
Jon Duval 6 1 5 6 20.0
Chad Levitan 6 3 2 5 11.0
Vilnis Nikolaisons 4 2 3 5 6.0
Blake Jenson 4 1 4 5 2.0
Bryan O'Connell 2 2 2 4 0.0
Matt Ward 6 1 3 4 6.0
Jamie Ellison 2 2 1 3 2.0
Sean Rynes 5 1 2 3 8.0
Taylor Rothgeb 5 3 0 3 4.0
Zak Greenawalt 6 0 3 3 14.0
Cody Proctor 6 1 1 2 6.0
Trevor Thomas 4 1 1 2 28.0
Danny Ward 4 1 0 1 13.0
Sinjin Thomas 2 1 0 1 4.0
Charles Friedman 4 0 1 1 2.0
Eric Demment 1 0 1 1 0.0
Josh Jacobson 3 0 1 1 8.0
John Stevens 3 0 1 1 7.0
Ivars Muzis 6 0 1 1 4.0
John Miller 1 0 1 1 0.0
Bryan Winkler 1 0 0 0 2.0
Noah Loyd 3 0 0 0 0.0
Kris Webster 4 0 0 0 9.0
Mike Connor 3 0 0 0 0.0
Peter Stevenson 2 0 0 0 2.0
Bobby Sloper 1 0 0 0 0.0
Ryan Thomson 6 0 1 1 2.0
GOALTENDER GAMES GOALS W-L AVG.
Ryan Thomson 6 18 5-1-0 3.00
Shots—Thomson 193. Saves—Thomson 175. Shootout saves—0. Shootout goals allowed—0. Shutouts—0. Empty net goals—0.
SCORE BY PERIODS 1ST 2ND 3RD OT TOT
Opposition 5 12 1 0 18, 3.0
Sun Valley 10 4 15 0 29, 4.8
INDIVIDUAL MARKS
Two-goal games (2)—Jordan Pritchett 1, Ryan Enrico 1.
Three-goal hat tricks (or more)—.
Game-winning goals (2)—Danny Ward 1, Jordan Pritchett 1.
Power play goals (5-26, 19%)—Jordan Pritchett 2, Blake Jenson 1, Taylor Rothgeb 1, Vilnis Nikolaisons 1.
Power play goals (opposition): 8-45, (18%).
Suns shorthanded goals (6)—Ryan Enrico 2, Matt Ward 1, Danny Ward 1, Chad Levitan 1, Bryan O'Connell 1.
Shorthanded goals (opposition): 2.
Season penalty minutes: SV 184, opponents 100.
GAME RESULTS
Total record: 5-1-0
Record in 1-goal games: 2-0-0
Record in overtime: 0-0-0
Games scoring 9 or more goals: 0
Games scoring 7 or more goals: 1
Suns wing Matt Ward (left) stickhandles away from Utah County Blizzard’s Weston Nash during the New Year’s weekend series on resort ice. Photo by David N. Seelig
