Earning three wins in four games, the Sun Valley Midget high school hockey team enjoyed a successful stint Feb. 4-6 during the "Sun Valley High School Hockey Weekend," tourney that brought seven out-of-town teams to resort ice.
Sun Valley, coached by Chris Benson and Ryan Enrico, defeated Bonneville/Hillcrest of Idaho Falls 7-2, outscored Skyline of Idaho Falls 5-1 and blanked Salmon 2-0. The Midget Suns lost to Boise 4-1.
Seniors Ian Murphy and Tony Martin each scored two goals and goalie Cassidy Carson stopped 28 of 30 Bonneville/Hillcrest shots in the Saturday afternoon 7-2 win. Single goals by Murphy, Tom Crosby, Davis Hague, Doug King and Liam Jablonski enabled Sun Valley to whip Skyline 5-1. Goalie Cody Levitan made saves on 23 of 24 shots.
King and Crosby scored and Carson had 16 saves in the 2-0 shutout of Salmon. For the weekend, the Midget Suns outscored their opponents 15-7. The team goes to Salmon Saturday, Feb. 12 for its next game.
Weekend scoring totals: Ian Murphy 3 goals/3 assists; Doug King 3/2; Davis Hague 2/2; Parker J. Weekes 0/3; Tony Martin 2/1; Tom Crosby 2/1; Liam Jablonski 2/0; Charlie Evans 1/0; Drew Barsch 0/1; and Cooper Hanley 0/1.
Other team members are Tommy Heinrich, Peter MacMillan, Rickie Jeneson, Alexander MacMillan, Mason Noyes, Riley Sibbach and Cameron Jenner.
Girls' tournament at Salmon
Meanwhile, the Sun Valley girls' U-19 team went 4-1-0 and outscored opponents 21-4 en route to a second-place finish in last weekend's Salmon tournament. Sun Valley beat Missoula 2-1, Kalispell 10-2, Salmon 4-0 and Bozeman 5-0 before dropping the championship game 1-0 to Idaho Falls.
Sun Valley's hard work paid off with the second-place finish among the seven teams assembled.
Saturday morning's game against Missoula was hard fought but started well with an unassisted goal by Allison Fluetsch. The end of the first period was tied 1-1 but early in the second Ellie Swanson scored the "go-ahead goal" with an assist from Daniela Stokes.
The snow accumulation on Salmon's outdoor rink slowed the game down a bit but both teams were equally disadvantaged. The final score was 2-1.
The afternoon game against Kalispell was played without falling snow and on much faster ice. The Sun Valley girls scored 10 goals against Kalispell's two; scoring in the game were Dylan Peterson (3/1), Stokes (3), Tanner Dredge (2), Swanson (1/1) and Gina Rickling (1/1). Other skaters assisting the scorers were Abigail Laughy and Kathlyne Scheidt with one assist each.
All of the seniors from the seven teams were honored as the sun set and lights came on. Salmon girls fought harder than ever against the Suns. The Salmon goalie faced 54 shots, only four of which made it past her. The final score was 4-0 with goals by Dredge, Laughy, Peterson and Stokes, all unassisted.
Sunday morning against Bozeman started well for the ladies with an incredibly low angle shot by Dylan Peterson which found its way into the net. Other goals were scored by Swanson, Dredge and Stokes (2) with two assists from Laughy.
The defense played by Jessica Martinez, Dredge, Kelly and Erin Hennessy shut down the offensive attempts from Bozeman's forwards. Emma Wilander had her second shut-out of the tournament with the final score of 5-0.
Travel home was delayed by the championship game against Idaho Falls, a team the Suns play throughout the season but have been dominated by all year. It wasn't until late in the second period that Idaho Falls was finally able to get by the stellar defense played by the Hennessys, Dredge and Martinez to find a small gap in the Wilander brick wall.
The final score was 1-0 Idaho Falls but the battle was a great one. In total, the Suns scored 21 goals and only four were scored against them. Wilander had a total of 64 saves. The opposing goalies saved 190 shots by this group of girls.
Throughout the weekend the younger Sun Valley girls joined forces with seven girls from McCall to form the McSuns for three games against the Salmon U-14s. Three games were played and a lot of fun was had by all! Improvement was evident and the games were close (2-3, 0-1 and 1-1).
The Suns head to Boise to defend their state championship title Feb. 18-20.
Honored prior to Friday’s “Senior” game against Boise High at Sun Valley Skating Center were Midget seniors, from left, defensemen Davis Hague, Charlie Evans and Ian Murphy, center Tony Martin, goalie Cody Levitan, center/assistant captain Doug King and assistant captain Tommy Heinrich. Photo by Willy Cook
