Canadian hockey players were on the loose during a road trip in Boise and Sun Valley last week—and they left a First Class impression, literally.
The Langley First Class men's hockey team is the league leader in its British Columbia division of what is called the Adult Safe Hockey League (ASHL).
And First Class played safely, cleanly and effectively against the Sun Valley Suns men's hockey team in a two-game series here Feb. 17-18.
First Class brought one of the best hockey teams that has ever visited Sun Valley Skating Center. It's a group of 25- to 30-year-olds who play together all winter and enjoy leaping over the boards under their Canadian flag and black First Class traveling banner.
They drove to Seattle, flew to Boise, partied Thursday night in downtown Boise, had a skate-around at Boise Ice World Friday, drove to Sun Valley, and marveled at the mountains and small-town feel.
And then they hammered the Suns, twice—with a smile and the Canadian attitude that can be oh, so nice.
With dizzying speed, First Class from Langley gave the Suns all they could handle in a high-energy two-game series and racked up 6-3 and 7-4 victories over the Suns (8-5-0).
The Canadians scored first in each of the six periods. They led 4-0 Friday and coasted to victory. Saturday, the Suns battled First Class to a 3-3 tie after one, after which the B.C. boys left the Suns in the dust with three unanswered goals.
Leading scorer this season for the 17-4-0-1 First Class squad that has scored 128 goals in 22 league games is 28-year-old right shot Ev Papadakos. He scored a three-goal hat trick Friday but was only one of eight different First Class scorers for the entire weekend. The Canadians out-shot the Suns 83-54 over the two games.
Top Suns scorers Bryan O'Connell (20 goals, 12 assists for 32 points) and Ryan Enrico (16-14 for 30) each scored three weekend goals. Suns goalie Ryan Thomson (70 saves) had to be on his toes all weekend.
Next Suns series, with McCall, is set for March 2-3.
Suns Hockey Summary
FIRST CLASS 6, SUNS 3
friday, FEBRUARY 17
Langley First Class 1 3 2 6
Sun Valley Suns 0 2 1 3
FIRST PERIOD—(1) Langley, Ev Papadatos (Brennan Sonne, Gord Edmondson), 17:18.
SECOND PERIOD—(2) Langley, Drew Brisbin (Lee Boyden), 2:27. (3) Langley, Chad Betts (Edmondson, Tom Willard), 5:24. (4) Langley, Sonne (Papadatos, Edmondson), 6:34, power play goal. (5) SV, Bryan O'Connell 18 (Jon Duval), 18:05. (6) SV, Ryan Enrico 14 (Scott Winkler, Duval), 18:52.
THIRD PERIOD—(7) Langley, Papadatos (Sonne), 3:59. (8) Langley, Papadatos (Sonne), 8:47, hat trick goal. (9) SV, O'Connell 19 (Trevor Thomas, Chad Levitan), 13:44, power play goal.
SHOTS ON GOAL—Langley First Class 12-17-9 for 38; Sun Valley 4-9-12 for 25.
GOALIES—Langely First Class, Mike Ladd (22 saves); Sun Valley, Ryan Thomson (32 saves, 6-4-0 record).
OFFICIALS—Dave Patrie and Chris Benson.
NOTES—Langley First Class is the current first-place team in the Langley 19-plus A Division of the Adult Safe Hockey League (ASHL). The ASHL is a professionally-managed recreational hockey league operating in Canlan-owned, leased or managed facilities across Canada and in select U.S. locations (Fort Wayne, Ind. And Vineland, N.J.). The league boasts of having over 75,000 players competing in a safe and competitive environment for men and women of all hockey backgrounds. First Class' league begins its games in September and continues through March 30. First Class currently has a 17-4-0-1 record and has outscored its opponents 128-86......Generally, the ASHL regulations emphasize safety by assessing double minor penalties (4 minutes) for infractions like boarding, body checking, butt ending, charging, cross checking, high sticking, slashing and spearing. That compares with the 2-minor penalties that are normally assessed for such penalties during Suns games. In addition, the league focuses on players taking responsibility for their own actions in this way: If a player averages 4.0 minutes of penalties or more per game, he comes under league review and first receives a written warning and then possibly suspensions for further violations.....The First Class leading scorer this season is tonight's hat trick scorer, 28-year-old Ev Papadatos (20 goals, 17 assists for 37 points). Papadatos, a 6-3, 220-pound right shot, started his professional career in 2003 with the BCHL Coquitlam Express. Also playing for Coquitlam back in those days was tonight's First Class goalie, Mike Ladd, and Brennan Sonne, who went on to play 65 games for the University of British Columbia from 2008-11....Besides Papadatos, First Class traveled with its other top two scorers, 30-year-old Lucas Fransen (14 goals, 17 assists) and Chad Betts (11 goals, 16 assists)....The team's No. 1 goalie made the trip, Mike Ladd, who has a 9-3-0 record in 12 games and a 3.09 goals against.....Two Suns players kept moving up the ladder in all-time scoring. Ivars Muzis, the 14th-year blueliner from Latvia, picked up a pair of points this weekend and has 57 goals and 131 assists for 188 points, tying John Miller (71-117 for 188) for 21st place. Ninth-year wing Ryan Enrico (118-135 for 253) from Hoboken, N.J. passed Dave Hutchinson from Connecticut and moved into 11th place on the all-time scoring list.....Last year Bryan O'Connell led the Suns with 17 goals and 14 assists for 31 points in 12 games. This year OC tops the Suns with 20 goals and 12 assists for 32 points in 11 games.
FIRST CLASS 7, SUNS 4
SATURday, FEBRUARY 18
Langley First Class 3 3 1 7
Sun Valley Suns 3 1 0 4
FIRST PERIOD—(1) Langley, Tom Willard (Brennan Sonne, Ev Papadatos), 2:50. (2) SV, Ryan Enrico 15 (Scott Winkler, Bryan O'Connell), 8:55. (3) Langley, Drew Brisbin (Lucas Fransen, Steve Bagnall), 9:35. (4) SV, O'Connell 20 (Trevor Thomas), 11:12. (5) SV, Ivars Muzis 2 (unassisted), 13:22. (6) Langley, Bagnall (jeff Boyer), 14:07.
SECOND PERIOD—(7) Langley, Willard (unassisted), 5:22. (8) Langley, Lee Boyden (Gord Edmondson), 6:45. (9) SV, Enrico 16 (Muzis, Chad Levitan), 10:07.
THIRD PERIOD—(11) Langley, Papadatos (Aaron Klaussner, Edmondson), 3:58.
SHOTS ON GOAL—Langley First Class 11-18-16 for 45; Sun Valley 10-6-13 for 29.
GOALIES—Langley First Class, Mike Ladd (25 saves); Sun Valley, Ryan Thomson (38 saves, 6-5-0 record).
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OFFICIALS—Chris Benson and Eric Wingard.
NOTES—Suns forward lines featured Ryan Enrico-Scott Winkler-Bryan O'Connell, Taylor Rothgeb-Chad Levitan-Sinjin Thomas, Caleb Baukol-Ryan Kolquist-Zak Greenawalt. The defensemen were Ivars Muzis, Jon Duval, Bryan Winkler and Trevor Thomas......For the weekend the Suns were 1-for-12 on the power play, and Langley 2-for-4.....Bryan O'Connell scored his first power play goal of the season Friday.....For the weekend, Langley out-shot the Suns 83-54 and out-pointed the hosts on the scoresheet 31-17.....Eleven different First Class players had points, compared to seven Suns skaters with points. Eight different Langley skaters had goals, compared to three Suns with goals.
2011-12 Sun Valley Suns statistics
(8-5-0 overall: 7-4-0 home, 1-1-0 away)
PLAYER GAMES GOALS AST. PTS. PMIN
Bryan O'Connell 11 20 12 32 6.0
Ryan Enrico 13 16 14 30 11.0
Jon Duval 13 3 15 18 20.0
Chad Levitan 13 6 10 16 6.0
Eric Demment 9 7 8 15 22.0
Ivars Muzis 12 2 11 13 10.0
Blake Jenson 5 0 8 8 2.0
Taylor Rothgeb 13 3 4 7 26.0
Blake King 9 3 2 5 30.0
Scott Winkler 8 2 3 5 0.0
Rob Morgus 4 1 3 4 2.0
John Miller 3 3 0 3 2.0
Charles Friedman 8 2 1 3 0.0
Trevor Thomas 13 1 2 3 52.0
Jeremy Mylymok 2 1 2 3 2.0
Sinjin Thomas 10 1 2 3 10.0
Zak Greenawalt 7 0 3 3 2.0
Danny Ward 2 0 2 2 2.0
Bryan Winkler 11 1 1 2 15.0
Jordan Pritchett 1 1 1 2 0.0
Ryan Kolquist 5 1 1 2 2.0
Zeph Fagergren 2 1 0 1 0.0
Buddy Enzo 2 1 0 1 0.0
John Stevens 5 0 1 1 0.0
Br. Hendrickson 2 0 1 1 0.0
Ryan Thomson 11 0 0 0 0.0
Matt Ward 8 0 0 0 2.0
Adam Enzo 2 0 0 0 0.0
Weston Nash 2 0 0 0 0.0
Cody Levitan 2 0 0 0 0.0
Caleb Baukol 1 0 0 0 0.0
Adam Labarbera 1 0 0 0 0.0
Carl Jablonski 1 0 0 0 0.0
Ryan Skelling 1 0 0 0 0.0
Cody Proctor 1 0 0 0 0.0
GOALTENDER GAMES GOALS W-L AVG.
Ryan Thomson 11 48 6-5-0 4.36
Cody Levitan 2 7 2-0-0 3.50
Shots—Thomson 369, Levitan 51. Saves—Thomson 321, Levitan 44. Shootout saves—0. Shootout goals allowed—0. Shutouts—Thomson 1. Empty net goals—0.
BY PERIODS 1ST 2ND 3RD OT TOT
Opposition 15 19 21 0 55, 4.2
Sun Valley 23 25 28 0 76, 5.9
INDIVIDUAL MARKS
Two-goal games (11)—Ryan Enrico 5, Chad Levitan 2, Bryan O'Connell 1, Eric Demment 1, John Miller 1, Blake King 1.
Three-goal hat tricks (or more) (6)—Bryan O'Connell 5, Ryan Enrico 1.
Game-winning goals (1)—Charles Friedman 1.
Power play goals (9-48, 19%)—Ryan Enrico 3, Eric Demment 2, Chad Levitan 1, Jeremy Mylymok 1, Scott Winkler 1, Bryan O'Connell 1.
Power play goals (opposition): 11-50, (22%).
Suns shorthanded goals (8)—Bryan O'Connell 3, Eric Demment 2, Chad Levitan 1, Ryan Enrico 1, Taylor Rothgeb 1.
Shorthanded goals (opposition): 2.
Season penalty minutes: SV 226, opponents 200.