Everybody’s talking about the relentless wet weather and the atmospheric rivers, but nobody’s saying much about the sun and the moon.
In hockey terms, the Sun Valley Suns Senior A men‘s hockey team (19-3) hopes to rectify that during their final games of the 2022-23 campaign this weekend in Hailey.
The Suns wind up a successful season on the ice when the Moon Mountain Moons hailing from the North Shore of Massachusetts arrive for two St. Patrick’s Day weekend games Friday and Saturday, March 17-18 at Campion Ice House.
You can thank leading Suns scorer Nick Curry and his men’s A League buddies from the Burlington, Massachusetts, area for dreaming up the idea of the Suns and the visiting Boston Moon team playing a pair of hockey games for what they call the “Eclipse Bowl.”
Who said hockey players don’t have a bit of the blarney in them!
Iowa-born Curry, 33, played his NCAA Division 1 hockey for four seasons from 2010-14 for the University of Massachusetts-Lowell Hawks and Sacred Heart University Pioneers out of Bridgeport, Conn.
His roommate at Lowell was Dan Furlong, a defenseman for the 16-player Boston team coming to Hailey this weekend. The Moons goalie and certainly a man you want in any St. Patrick’s Day lineup is Brian Quinn. Curry, Furlong and Quinn played in a men’s league back east before Curry came to the Suns.
Quinn had played some hockey for the Vail (Colorado) Yeti in the Black Diamond Hockey League, so he was familiar with the three-time BDHL champion Sun Valley Suns. He and Furlong were all in when Curry suggested they put together a hockey team to come west and play the Suns.
“We needed something that was the exact opposite of the Suns, so we came up with Moon, and created a fictional place called Moon Mountain to show where they were from,” Curry said.
Only later did they discover Moon Mountain was a real place, a 1,086-peak east of Springfield, Massachusetts.
The Moon squad last visited Campion Dec. 10-11, 2021, with the Suns winning a pair of high-scoring games 9-4 and 9-5. The Boston team was a last-minute addition to the Suns schedule.
“We brought a rag-tag team last December, but the atmosphere was so much fun,” Quinn said.
Since then, Curry managed to come up with an “Eclipse Bowl” trophy, using the cup itself from the old Joe Casey Memorial BDHL championship trophy last won by the Suns in 2019 and coming up with a new base stating the “Eclipse” name.
“The Moon have jumped on board and are bringing a real good team this year,” said Curry.
Added Quinn, “We have a good nucleus of guys, with nine forwards, five defensemen, two goalies, more depth and more skill. It’s an All-Star lineup from our men’s league.”
Besides Quinn, there are two others including goalie Ben Irwin from the strong Burlington High School Red Devils. Moons co-captain along with Furlong is Jake Moscatel, 34, out of Belmont High School, Univ. of New England (2009-11) and 40 games for NCAA Division 1 power Boston University from 2011-14.
Other defensemen are 6-5, 201-pound Tucker White, 27, from Univ. of Ontario Institute of Technology (2017-21); Brian Hanafin from Burlington High and Salem State (2019-13); Mike Fahey from Burlington High; and Mark Higgins, 31, from St. Michael’s College (2011-15).
The Moons boasts two 30-year-old NCAA Division III forwards from Kennebunk, Me. They are Dave Horan out of SUNY-Brockport (2014-18) and Kevin Airoldi from Stonehill College (2013-16).
Forward Max Hegge, 26, came to New England junior hockey from Kenai, Ak. and played for Skidmore College (2015-19). Two Assumption University 27-year-old forwards are Hot Mike Sorenti and Jake Moore. One more forward, 37-year-old Steve Salemi got his hockey background from the School of Hard Knocks.
Another from Assumption in Worchester, Massachusetts, is Tom Mahoney. Rounding out the roster is 32-year-old Sean Duffy from Burlington.
Higher Ground is the benefit during for the Suns-Moons encounter. Opening faceoffs are 7:15 p.m. Friday and Saturday. 
Post a comment as anonymous
Report
Watch this discussion.
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In