BY MICHAEL DAVID

 The competition keeps getting better and the Sun Valley Suns Hockey Club keeps on winning. The Suns hosted the New York City Midtown Mafia this weekend and swept the two-game series, winning an overtime thriller on Saturday night 3-2, after defeating the Mafia in another tight contest Friday, 4-1.

 In the opener on Friday, Sun Valley took a 1-1 first period game and extended the lead with single goals in the second and third period to go up 3-1. They added an empty net goal to provide the final tally of 4-1. Goalie Bobby Bowden was fantastic once again, turning back all but one of the Mafia shots on goal.

 Both teams came out focused in the first period Saturday and the defenses set the tone for the squads. The Suns finally broke through 11 minutes into the game on a goal by veteran forward Ryan Enrico to take the 1-0 lead. Neither team could find the net for the remainder of the period and the home team took the one goal lead into the first intermission.

 Defense was the story for most of the second period as the score remained 1-0 until the seven-minute mark when the young guns from New York City finally managed to find a small crack in the wall put up by goaltender Matt Cooper and tie the score at 1-1. Moments later the Mafia scored to give NYC their first lead of the night 2-1.

 The Suns found themselves down by a goal for most of the third period until Jefferson Dahl scored an unassisted goal to tie the score 2-2 and force the sudden death overtime period.

 In overtime, veteran defenseman Mike Curry beat the Midtown goaltender and the large crowd at the Campion Ice House erupted with joy to celebrate the Suns’ victory.

 The two wins raised the Suns season record to 17-1. They will be off next weekend before traveling to face the Park City Pioneers in Park City Feb, 28 and 29.

 The Suns will be back in action in Hailey March 6 and 7 against the Vermont Switchbacks. They will close out the 2019-2020 season at home against their archrivals, the Jackson Moose, March 13 and 14. As always, the puck drops at the Ice House at 7 p.m.