Getting timely goals when they needed them, the Sun Valley Youth Hockey Bantams (ages 13-14) wrapped up their season by winning the four-team Jackson Hole “B” tournament Sunday at Snow King arena in Jackson Hole, Wyo.
Coach John Stevens’ Suns went 2-0-2 including the 1-0 championship game victory over Idaho Falls. Goalie Dehner Figge posted the shutout and earned the game MVP, with Logan Robideaux scoring the only goal in the final. Other highlights were:
Friday’s 3-3 tie with Salmon with Jack Stevens scoring one goal and game MVP Travis Wilkinson scoring his first-ever goals; Nick Swift’s second-period goal tripping up Idaho Falls 1-0, with Robideaux getting the game MVP in the second game;
The Suns also rallied for a critical 1-1 tie with Cache Valley of Logan, Utah on a third-period Robideaux tally, with game MVP Henry Everitt manning the net in the first and third periods of a contest that put Sun Valley into the championship game.
Other Bantam team members were Oskar Wilander, Alec Broman, Henry Raff, Sam Johnson, Nick Smith, Jett Erickson, Matt Fisher, Matt Galgano and Kyle Furlong.
In other action:
( The Sun Valley Girls went 3-1 in a tournament at McCall, with Kasey Johnson earning the weekend jersey for all-around amazing play; and the Sun Valley PeeWees (ages 11-12) captured second place in the “B” division of an Idaho Falls tourney.
Check today’s Express Web site for details on those games.
PeeWees in Idaho Falls
At the Snake River Shootout at Idaho Falls, the young Suns earned second place with a 2-2-0 record including a 3-2 shootout loss to the Utah Grizz in the championship game.
In that final contest, goalie Andrew Nelson (27 saves in regulation) was stellar between the pipes for the runner-up squad. Paxton Bunting scored the equalizer with less than one second left in regulation time, and Flynn Stewart contributed a shootout goal for Sun Valley.
Earlier, Utah Grizz nipped the Suns 3-1, with Stewart scoring the lone goal and netminder Nelson making 21 saves.
The Suns defeated Idaho Falls 7-3 on scoring by Klayton Douthit (2 goals), Ike Buxton (3 goals), Paxton Bunting and Sam Laski. Sun Valley also defeated Jackson Hole, Wyo. 4-2 with Buxton scoring twice to go with single goals by Tiernan Naghsh and Luke Marcoullier. Chipping in with two assists was Jamie Rollerson.
Also playing were Teagan McAvoy (1 assist), Sam Ballard, Sam Fenn and Luke Worst.
Girls skate at McCall
Winning three of their four games, the Sun Valley girls coached by Chris Benson, Eddie Grimes and Dale Johnson had a good tune-up at McCall last weekend with the state tournament coming up Feb. 22-24 in Idaho Falls.
Game pucks at McCall went to Megan Johnston, Sophie Nasvik, Taylor Hebert and Abigail Benson.
Early Saturday morning, the Lady Suns suffered their only setback 3-2 to McCall despite two goals by Megan Johnston. Goalie Evi Johnson came up with 14 saves to keep the game close.
Saturday afternoon, Sun Valley slipped past Salmon 3-2 on goals by Evi Johnson (assists to Morgan Benson and Taylor Hebert), Audra Mary (Kasey Johnson) and Sophie Nasvik (Kasey Johnson). Goalie Sydney Roberts made 6 saves.
Another close game Sunday morning resulted in a 2-1 Suns triumph over Salmon, with Evi Johnson stopping 8 shots in goal. Scoring were Denali Stevens (Abigail Benson, Meg Johnston) and Taylor Hebert (Meg Johnston).
Sun Valley then defeated McCall 3-1 Sunday afternoon with Evi Johnston making 7 saves. Scoring goals were Taylor Hebert, Kasey Johnson and Morgan Benson (Megan Johnston).
Also playing were Scout Hutchinson, Abby Robideaux and Anik Zarkos.