Idaho Mountain Express: Auto Club skaters reclaim the Gund Cup 4-2

Friday, March 8, 2013

Auto Club skaters reclaim the Gund Cup 4-2

Grumpy’s edges Lefty’s in hockey finale

You might not blame Sun Valley Auto Club/Grumpy’s goaltender David Stone if he took one of his shiny Auto Club convertibles out for a ride on a mild Hailey day and showed off the famed Gund Cup.

Stone backstopped the Auto Club/Grumpy’s hockey team (9-5-0) to a 4-2 victory over defending champion Lefty’s Bar & Grill (3-11-0) Tuesday in the championship game of the 32nd annual Senior “A” Hockey League season-ending playoffs as the fourth seed out of four teams with a 2-10-0 record.

Lefty’s out-shot Grumpy’s 35-28 during the game, but Stone sticked aside or blocked all 26 Lefty’s shots in the second and third periods after the two teams ended the first 17-minute period in a 2-2 tie.

Stone saved a breakaway by John Kearney Jr. midway through the third period and also stopped a two-on-one Lefty’s break a minute later to make sure of the triumph.

The Auto Club defense sparked by Harry Weekes and Mark Stone kept many of the Lefty’s chances from developing. At the other end, Lefty’s goalie Pat Ballou was nearly as good as Stone, making 24 saves on the 28 Auto Club shots.

Auto Club edged ahead 2-1 in the first period on goals by Dave Hennessy and Rian Timmons, with an assist by Vilnis Nikolaisons. Crist Cook opened the Lefty’s scoring, assisted by Trevor Thomas, then Don Saver made it 2-2 just before the end of the first period, assisted by Randy Flood.

Lefty’s had the shooting edge for the rest of the game, but Grumpy’s made the most of its shots.

Mark Stone teed up a slapshot for the eventual winning goal six minutes into the second, on passes from Charles Friedman and Weekes. Then Friedman punched home the insurance goals in close quarters, assisted by Nikolaisons.

Auto Club last won the Gund Cup in 2009, beating Morgan’s Fine Finishes that year 3-2. This was the first year the Gund Cup tournament was played without the presence of longtime Sun Valley hockey benefactor George Gund III, who died in January.

viagra kaufen
comprare viagra
comprar viagra

About Comments

Comments with content that seeks to incite or inflame may be removed.

Comments that are in ALL CAPS may be removed.

Comments that are off-topic or that include profanity or personal attacks, libelous or other inappropriate material may be removed from the site. Entries that are unsigned or contain signatures by someone other than the actual author may be removed. We will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or any other policies governing this site. Use of this system denotes full acceptance of these conditions. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.

The comments below are from the readers of mtexpress.com and in no way represent the views of Express Publishing, Inc.

You may flag individual comments. You may also report an inappropriate or offensive comment by clicking here.

Flagging Comments: Flagging a comment tells a site administrator that a comment is inappropriate. You can find the flag option by pointing the mouse over the comment and clicking the 'Flag' link.

Flagging a comment is only counted once per person, and you won't need to do it multiple times.

Proper Flagging Guidelines: Every site has a different commenting policy - be sure to review the policy for this site before flagging comments. In general these types of comments should be flagged: