It took two tough battles in their homecoming to Campion Ice House, but the Sun Valley Elite A men’s hockey team pulled off a sweep of the visiting New York St. Nicks.
After three weeks away from Hailey, the Suns were the comeback kids on Friday night, winning, 6-5, then kept up the momentum Saturday to wear down the St. Nicks, 8-5.
In front of 882 fans over the Presidents’ Day Weekend, the Suns (10-6 overall, 8-6 home, 2-0 away) put on a show against a talented and historic team, which comprised former minor leaguers and NCAA Division 1, 2 and 3 players.
Starting in 1896, the St. Nicks flaunt a history that predates even the National Hockey League. However, that didn’t deter the headstrong Suns, who were looking for a triumphant weekend of hockey.
“These were our best back-to-back games all season,” Suns head coach Ryan Enrico said. “All four lines, six defensemen and both goalies were firing on all cylinders.”
Friday’s showing had thrills and spills. Down 3-0 early in the second period, forward DJ Robinson (Trevor Thomas assist) put the Suns on the board for the first time. Then, the Suns rattled off two more goals in two minutes from Doug Yeates (Mike Curry assist) and Derek Grimes (Brenden McGovern, Sean O’Grady) to tie it 3-3.
The teams went at each other like two heavyweights slugging it out. New York added two more goals, but Sun Valley added one more of its own from McGovern (Grimes, Curry). New York held a 5-4 lead at the end of the second period.
In the third period, the Suns eventually took the lead with goals from Max Tardy (Yeates, Curry) and another from McGovern (unassisted).
On Friday, Bobby Bowden (5-5) got the call at the net for the Suns and finished with the victory and 48 saves. New York’s Tommy Burke played impressively for the St. Nicks. New York’s only goalie of the weekend ended with 37 saves in 57 minutes.
Former Suns forward Kevin Kaiser had 3 points (1 goal, 2 assists) for New York on Friday.
Saturday’s game had a similar vibe. New York jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the second period with the lone Suns goal from Justin Taylor (O’Grady, Grimes).
Five minutes into the second period, the Suns turned on the juice and tallied up three unanswered goals in the middle frame. Goal scorers in the second period were Tardy (Brian Dunford, Spencer Brendel), Chad O’Brien (Curry, Robinson) and Yeates (Tardy, Brendel).
“We wore them out on both nights,” Enrico said. “You could see the tide turn as the game wore on. But, we had a game plan, and we stuck to it well.”
Sun Valley added four more goals in the third period, including a goal from McGovern as time expired to get the goal total to eight. Tardy (Brendel), Brendel (Tardy, Yeates), Steve McCall (Thomas) and McGovern (Darrell Hay) put the Suns up for good.
Matt Cooper (5-1) was at the net Saturday, racking up 31 saves. The St. Nicks’ Burke had 21 saves in 57 minutes.
Big players from the weekend for the Suns were Tardy with 5 points (3 goals, 2 assists), McGovern with 4 points (3 goals, 1 assist), Brendel with 4 points (1 goal, 3 assists), Yeates with 3 points (2 goals, 1 assist) and Curry with 3 assists.
This brings the Suns average goals per game to 5.9 goals while holding opponents to only 3.9 gpg.
Vail wraps Suns home slate this weekend
This upcoming weekend, the Suns welcome the Vail Yeti (6-6). The Yeti are coming off a split series against the Denver Leafs. In addition, the Yeti recently added two forwards in Mike Testwuide and Evan Ritt.
Testwuide is a Colorado College product and spent four years in the AHL before seven more years in the Asia Hockey League. He then represented South Korea in the 2018 Winter Olympics.
Ritt is a Denver University product and was a member of the 2017 NCAA National Championship team that beat Minnesota-Duluth, 3-2.
“Vail will be a different task for us,” Enrico said. “It’ll be more physical. It’ll be a tall task, but we’ll get back to work and get ready to play next weekend.”
The series against the Yeti marks the final home game for the Suns. Sun Valley had the Vermont Switchbacks scheduled as the last home game (March 4-5), but Vermont had to cancel the series.
