Suns burning, still on fire
By DAVID LARSON<br><i>The Wood River Journal ~ Sun Valley</i>
Sun Valley, meet new challenge. Sun Valley, beat new challenge. Just like they've done all year, head coach Chris Benson and his gang of hockey players faced down another fire-breathing dragon, slaughtering the New York St. Nick's by scores of 3-2 and 9-4, increasing their record to an unprecendented 18-0.
	"Obviously that was a monster weekend," Benson said. "Beating those guys and being able to squeak out two victories is huge."
	The Suns started off their scoring Friday in the second period, with a goal by Jeremy Schrieber. It came off an assist from Bill Tryder and Charles Friedman, responding to New York's goal six minutes earlier. The team 's would not score in the first, the result of stellar goalie work by Ryan Thomson (12 first period saves) as well as New York's goalie (13 first period saves).
	In the third period, it all went down. After Tryder scored an unassisted goal at the 12:10 mark, tying the score at two, the magical season continued tilting towards the Suns, as Jamie Ellison and Vilnis Nikolaisons found Ryan Enrico for the game winner, giving Sun Valley a 3-2 lead with 41 seconds left. After New York pulled their goalie, Scottie Winkler barely missed padding the lead by hitting the cross-bar on a shot. New York almost tied it with five seconds to go, but missed. Perhaps one of the most exciting games of the year in front of a packed house had Benson reminiscing.
	"I was having flashbacks to a game we played against the Trail Smoke Eaters," Benson said. He was talking about a similar game-ending situation that saw a pulled goalie and overtime. But like the whole season, the puck went Sun Valley's way. "If we played another five minutes, I don't know what would've happened," the coach said.
	Thomson would finish with 28 saves on 30 shots and Sun Valley would finish with 32 total shots on goal, only seven penalties on the night.
	"Our guys are playing with a lot of heart," Benson said. "Without a doubt it was the toughest team we've played this year. They didn't have many skaters, but they definitely were never going to give up, they had a lot of ex-D-1 skaters."
	Saturday night's game was a little less likely to cause heat burn.
	Using four first-period goals and four third-period goals, Sun Valley used an explosion usually reserved for a bomb squad, easily winning 9-4.
	"They probably more out-shot us," Benson said. "There were a lot of two or three rebound shots that could've gone in."
	The team was helped by a staggering 47 saves by Sun Valley goalie Colin Zulianello to remain undefeated. Sun's goals were by Ryan McDonald, Schrieber, Blake Jenson, Enrico, Vilnis Nikolaisons, John Duval, Paul Cox, Paul Baranzelli and John Stevens, a solid, all-around effort.
	"Overall it was a good team weekend, we had good goalie work. Friday was probably one of the best hockey games that rink has ever seen," Benson said.
	The Suns will now host the Missoula Cutthroats at the Sun Valley ice rink this Friday and Saturday. Could they finish undefeated?
	"We don't know much about them. The guy that contacted me (to play) played at Dartmouth. They might have some Canadians on their team. After Minnesota cancelled on us, we had to have someone fill. Who knows, maybe we'll schedule another home and home with them next year," Benson said.	
	Puck drops this weekend at 7 p.m. as Benson's crew tries to improve to an amazing 20-0. They then go to Park City before hosting Boston and movie producer Bobby Farrelly.