For the week of March 13 - 19, 2002

Gund Cup finale 
lives up to its billing

OT goal by Stevens lifts 
Warm Springs 6-5

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By JODY ZARKOS
Express Staff Writer

What a hockey game!

Warm Springs/EA Sports and Viva Taqueria skated furiously into double-overtime in the Gund Cup tournament championship at the Sun Valley Skating Center Monday.

Warm Springs prevailed 6-5 to capture its third Gund Cup title in eight years.

"It was a good one," Warm Springs defenseman Dale Johnson said. "It was nice to have a competitive game."

Not many people expected a close game. Viva Taqueria (11-3), the regular-season Senior Hockey League champs who averaged six-plus goals a game, had thumped Warm Springs (9-4-1) in all four meetings.

But the scone boys added some new parts to their old car on Monday—Suns players Joe Lawson and Paul Baranzelli.

According to league commissioner Pete Prekeges, the pair had skated with Warm Springs twice in the season, but not the required three times. Allowing them to play is a decision he is sure to take heat for.

"I messed up at the beginning of the year by allowing the six Suns to play on Viva. They were altogether too good. I told Warm Springs they could play them (Lawson/Baranzelli) so we could have an actual Gund Cup final," Prekeges remarked.

It worked wonderfully well for Warm Springs.

But Viva struck first with lightning-quick Vilnes Nikolaisons going over goalie Chris Edwards’ right shoulder for a 1-0 lead. Just half a minute later, Baranzelli equalized off a pass from John Stevens. Baranzelli would return the favor later.

Kit Hughes broke in from the point and scored on an impossible shot, going high through tons of traffic, to give Viva a 2-1 lead at the end of the first. The lead would not last.

Two minutes into the second period, Lawson double-pumped the face-off and scored, 2-2.

Speed kills and Viva had the passing to go with it in the second. The defending Gund Cup champs went up 3-2 when Tom Forti beat Edwards one-on-one after the puck had bounced out of Viva’s defensive zone.

Nikolaisons converted on a power play with 8:26 left in the period. Viva, ahead 4-2, was cruising until Tim Tracy drew a five-minute penalty for high sticking which resulted in a broken nose for Mike Punnett.

Warm Springs capitalized off Punnett’s nasal realignment. John Miller found Lawson, who pulled goalie Brian Ross (18 saves) and poked the puck in cutting the lead to 4-3.

In the third, Forti again had fortuitous timing and nailed a rebound shot by Cam Bennett to lead 5-3 and appeared to have plenty of momentum after killing off a penalty in which they were two men down.

But Warm Springs always stayed in Viva’s rear view mirror—and Lawson was closer than he appeared when he nailed his third goal of the game to make it a 5-4 contest with 8:23 remaining.

With 1:25 on the clock, Phil Hebert found the five-hole for a 5-5 tie much to the dismay of Viva’s faithful fans who bring new and special meaning to the term "fanatic."

In the second frenzied overtime period, Baranzelli carried the puck into the zone on the right and dished to the soft-handed Stevens who beat Ross for the game-winner.

"Their defense went to Pauley and I thought, wow," Stevens recounted. "Pauley saw it too, he passed and I just closed my eyes and shot."

Warm Springs would not have hoisted the silver trophy without the efforts of goalie Chris Edwards who made 25 saves on 33 shots, including 11 in the third period and four in overtime. "Eggie" was named Most Valuable Player of the game by the officials.

"It was by far my best game of the season. The last periods anyway," said Edwards.

Veteran defenseman Dick Nelson was the first to drink out of the coveted cup. While he hoisted it, a teammate remarked: "For a bunch of old guys, we skated them into the ground pretty good."

 

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.