For the week of March 13 - 19, 2002

A kick, a shot, 
Suns win 7-5

Eight straight for Suns (23-1)

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Sun Valley Suns captain Chris Benson has a booming slapshot, the best on the team.

But it was a little kick of the puck by Benson that led to Sun Valley’s 7-5 victory over the Boston Hockey Club Saturday.

Scott Winkler, Suns wing, scored a career-best four goals in Friday’s 7-3 Sun Valley victory. Express photo by Willy Cook

Fighting an uphill battle all evening, the Suns finally tied the game 5-5 when John Stevens made a nice centering pass and center Joe Lawson buried a power-play goal with five minutes left in regulation.

Their only power-play goal of the weekend came at a great time for the Suns, who have struggled with the extra skater the past four games. Benson explained, "We only skate once a week, so we basically don’t do any work on the power play."

Trying to avoid another overtime game, the Suns put lots of pressure on Boston in the last minute.

They opted for big scorers and big shots, sending out an eclectic unit of Benson, Jamie Ellison, Vilnis Nikolaisons, Tom Forti and Kris Webster.

The puck whirled around the Boston zone and ended up in the slot, where Benson was hauled down by a Beantown defenseman. He landed on his belly, then sat upright quickly.

Benson said, "I got tripped up and looked down by my foot and saw the puck. I couldn’t tell where all the bodies were, but I kicked it over to where I thought Jamie was."

Ellison was in perfect position, lurking to the right of Boston goalie Brendan Macauley. He buried his shot with 26 seconds left in the third period for a 6-5 Suns lead. It ended up as Ellison’s third game-winning goal in the last 12 Suns games.

Stevens (4 assists), Benson (3 assists) and Lawson (2 goals) helped the Suns (23-1) come within one victory of the franchise’s single-season winning record of 24—with six games left in the 2001-02 season.

Although their power play was a washout, the Suns were strong in penalty killing Saturday. Trailing by a goal virtually the whole night, they stayed within striking distance by killing off five of six penalties in the second and third periods.

"We have young legs, kids fresh out of college who are fundamentally sound on the penalty kill," said Benson.

Scott Winkler’s young legs produced four goals for the Suns in Friday’s 7-3 triumph. The first Suns hat trick for the Sun Valley junior hockey product came within a 3:32-span early in the second period. Nikolaisons added five assists.

The Suns have now won five of their last six games against the Beantowners and have slipped ahead 11-9-2 in the 11-season rivalry.

In Saturday’s game, first-year defenseman Paul Baranzelli scored his 16th goal, breaking the Suns single-season blueliner record of 15 set by Webster in the national championship season of 1998.

 

Jackson trip March 22-23

The Suns have this weekend off, then travel to Jackson Hole (Wyo.) March 22-23 for a rematch with arch-rival Jackson Hole. The Moose had a blistering hot goalie and handed the Suns their only loss, 2-1, on Feb. 2.

Jackson Hole (18-7) lost a pair of games, 8-5 and 7-3, to Glenn Anderson’s Monster.com squad from New York City March 1-2. "We’re looking forward to playing the Moose. We know we let one slip away against them," Benson said.

The Suns have won eight straight games since that loss.

Check the Express web site for season statistics and complete hockey summary from the Boston games.

 

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.