Fat lady sings! Suns are 20-0
By DAVID LARSON<br><i>The Wood River Journal ~ Sun Valley</i>
It's getting kind of old, really. 
The same song and dance: Suns win two over the weekend, remain undefeated. But week after week, game after game, that's exactly what keeps happening, as the Suns improved to 20-0 with victories Friday and Saturday over the Missoula Cutthroats. With wins of 12-11 and 8-3, the Suns are looking to end the season with an undefeated season for the first time in their illustrious history.
	But that's not what had head coach Chris Benson talking after the game: "Last night (friday) was ugly," the coach said. "We won ugly. From a team perspective it was a brutal hockey game. We gave them six goals, then we got six goals..."
	The Suns were led in scoring by Paul Baranzelli, Blake Jenson, Ryan McDonald, Adam Swain, Eric Demment, Jami James and Ryan Enrico. In fact, McDonald would lead the team in scoring with four goals, none bigger than his game-winner with 30 seconds to play. Baranzelli added a hat trick, giving the team momentum heading into Saturday night's contest, a game that saw aggressive play by both teams as Sun Valley wanted to remain undefeated while the Cutthroats wanted to pull out the upset.
	Missoula would score first, getting a wrister from the left side of the rink to quickly show the fans in attendance that they meant business. Just minutes later, Jenson would find himself in the penalty box and the Suns were shorthanded. They were also playing without the services of goalie Colin Zulianello and goalie Ryan Thomson was playing with a strained right groin. No matter. The Cutthroats couldn't capitalize on much of their good fortune.
	At the 13:03 mark, Adam Swain, whose father played in the NHL and whose sister is the Wood River boys' soccer coach, got the puck on the right side of the net from James and Jenson and blasted a goal, getting the Suns back to even at 1-1. Josh Jacobson got into a heated argument just seconds later and the Suns that we've seen all year were back: physical, skilled and not ready to back down to a challenge. It would be the theme all night.
	The Suns would get 16 shots off in the first period, perhaps none more important than a goal by Jamie Ellison. The Sun For Life took a slick pass from Enrico and was pushed into the net going full speed ahead. Luckily, he took the puck with him, giving Benson and crew a 2-1 lead.
	It was almost 3-1 before you could count to 10 after a man shot by Jeremy Schrieber from the blue line narrowly missed. After a couple 2-on-1's that saw Vilnis Nikolaisons try to get puck to Ellison only to have it broken up, Enrico saw daylight at 2:42, getting a pass from Baranzelli and knowing exactly what to do with it, putting it in net. As Sun's player Caleb Baukol cheered on his team from the stands, Sun Valley looked like they'd go into their locker room up 3-1. Not true. John Duval would get his name in the score sheet, connecting on a pass from the great Scottie Winkler to make it 4-1. It appeared the game would be just as high scoring, as Sun Valley was on their way to another 12 goal night.
	"Tonight the boys played more like we're used to seeing," Benson said. "They played disciplined, tightened the zone and we limited their odd-man rushes."
	Sun Valley's goalie on this night, Thomson, would finish the first with 11 saves, playing like a brick wall.
	In the second, Benson came out with Demment, Schrieber, Nikolaisons, Enrico and Ellison, a line-up that let Thomson do his thing in goal. First Thomson had a huge stop with his right shin, moving the puck to the side, then minutes later stopped another flying puck by extending his right arm into the air. With Missoula laying it all on the line, Enrico found net at 8:23, ending a 12 minute scoring drought, making it 5-1. It was some of the only offense in a period marred by the occasional fight and stellar defense by both squads.
	Perhaps Winkler and Schrieber were the best examples of this. The duo flew around the ice, checking when the opportunity presented itself, creating opportunities for the offense when they could. Missoula would get lucky, however, as they found net after three straight amazing stops by Thomson, getting the score to 5-2. This is when Schrieber threw off his gloves and treated a Cutthroat like his personal punching bag, getting in a few nice hooks and jabs before heading to the locker room. It seemed to fire up Sun Valley even more, as Thomson continued his great goalie work, Baranzelli continued getting pucks out of the way and James started cracking heads like he knows how.
	A penalty by Missoula gave the Sun Valley's James a penalty shot, though it was stopped. The dissapointment obvious on his face, James would score 30 seconds later, striking puck past the right arm of the Cutthroat goalie off an assist from Bill Tryder, giving Sun Valley a comfortable 6-2 lead. Thomson had 16 more saves in the period and Sun Valley would total 21 more shots, all but giving the team a victory.
	The third saw a concentrated effort on defense by the Suns and not as much offense. Some nice skating work by Demment almost found him with a goal as he split two defenders, but it was not to be. Finally, at 11:20, Enrico got a pass from James and Warrington and punched puck into net, a shot cooler than Sam Jackson in Pulp Fiction. Missoula would get their last goal moments later, and Tryder would end the scoring for the Sun's with 15 seconds left, giving the team yet another victory, 7-3.
	After the game, Benson was happy with the work of his defense, particularly with the work of Thomson.
	"Ryan played good," Benson said. "All weekend he made things happen, moving his feet like he normally does."
	The Suns have four games left, the biggest question not whether they'll end their season undefeated, but rather whether they'd go to Wisconsin for the national championships.
	"We had an offer to go, someone to help pay for the trip, but we just have too many players down," Benson said. "Swain separated his shoulder tonight, it would be difficult for Colin (Zulianello) to go because of his job. There's no way we'd go with just one goalie. We'd have to play four or five games in four days. If you make it to the championship, we'd have two games in one day. It'd just be hard. Our plan is to shoot for it next year. The logistics are just too hard."
	The Suns will now travel to Park City this weekend for a weekend contest with the Park City Silver Kings. They then end their season with home games against the Boston Bulldogs and Hollywood producer Bobby Farrelly on March 9-10. Puck drops both nights at 7:15 p.m.