“It got a little chippy this weekend,” Suns head coach Ryan Enrico said. “They’re physical, as are we. Sometimes that boils over back-to-back nights. Our guys responded well. We played a full 60 minutes [Saturday], but we played about 47 minutes [Friday].”
There were 95 penalty minutes (55 for Vail, 40 for Suns) in all Saturday—for the weekend, Vail had 75 minutes, and Sun Valley had 52.
With the physicality taking over in the rink, it was a perfect time to pay tribute to Suns longtime general manager and head coach John “Cub” Burke. He was honored in the first intermission of Saturday’s game. Burke last coached the Suns in the 2019-20 season and finished his career with a 229-89-9 record through 17 seasons.
“[Cub] turned this program into a top-notch organization,” Enrico said. “He does it all. He’s unbelievable.”
Beyond the boxing matches, there was hockey that was played.
On Saturday, the Suns (11-7 overall, 9-7 home, 2-0 away) had difficulty getting into the groove. In the first period, they fell into an early deficit, 3-0, with goals from Vail’s Dom Panetta, Will Compton and Dalton Speelman.
In the second period, the Suns ended the drought through Sean O’Grady. Mike Curry and Jefferson Dahl got the assist to O’Grady, who scored again in the third period with assists from Curry and Max Tardy.
Speelman and Justin Elmore added goals for the Yeti to extend the lead.
It was a challenging game for goalie Bobby Bowden (5-6), who finished with 16 saves. For the Yeti, Spencer Gold finished with 29 saves.
According to Enrico, Saturday saw a different start for the Suns, which made all the difference.
The Suns came out with an offensive mission. Enrico utilized all four lines and used Charlie Evans and Doug King to rotate skaters out and get fresh legs in the lineup.
“Except for penalties, we wore them down,” Enrico said.
The Suns jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first period and didn’t allow the Yeti to get into rhythm. The Suns had five different players score by the game’s end, with Kyle Mitsunaga, O’Grady, DJ Robinson, Justin Taylor and Max Tardy all tallying goals. Assists came from Doug Yeates, Derek Grimes, Dylan Shamburger, Brian Dunford, Mitsunaga and Curry (2).
Mitsunaga had a lovely Saturday night with 2 points (1 goal, 1 assist).
Over the weekend, Curry played phenomenally with 4 assists. O’Grady finished the two-game series with 3 goals and Tardy finished with 2 assists.
On Saturday, the player that kept the Suns polished was goalie Matt Cooper (6-1), who ended the game with 14 saves. Gold finished with 26 saves on Saturday for Vail.
“Coop played outstanding tonight,” Enrico said. “[Bobby and Matt] always give us a chance to win.”
The Suns have been on the upswing to end the season, going 5-1 in their last six games. Sun Valley is off this weekend before wrapping up the season on March 11-12, when they travel to Santa Rosa to play the Growlers once more at Snoopy’s Ice House.
