BY MICHAEL DAVID

The fans came out in droves to the Campion Ice House this weekend to watch the fierce rivalry between the Sun Valley Suns and the Jackson Moose.

On Friday night, the Suns got the best of the Moose, winning 7-4. But the Moose turned the tables on the Suns Saturday night, leaving town with a 4-2 victory.

A crowd of 930 spectators packed the arena on Friday night, and the crowd was every bit as large on Saturday, hoping to see the Suns sweep the two-game series. But the Moose were determined from the outset to play spoilers, jumping out to a 1-0 lead less than three minutes into the contest.

Suns defensiveman Tyler Lovejoy tied the game one minute later, scoring off the assist from veteran Marty Flickle. The Moose scored at 9:30 to go back on top 2-1. But Chad O’Brien, off the feed from Mike Currie, scored late in the period to tie the game at two goals apiece at the first intermission.

The second period was a defensive struggle as both goaltenders thwarted a barrage of shots until the Moose scored a power-play goal with 3:30 remaining in the period to take a 3-2 lead.

The Suns attacked the crease the entire third period, peppering the Moose net minder with shot after shot. But he was up to the task, turning all Suns’ shots on goal away. Jackson added an empty net goal to make the final score 4-2. Sun Valley outshot the Moose 48-27, but the puck just didn’t bounce their way Saturday night.

These two squads  met last weekend in Jackson and the Suns came away with the road split, losing on Friday, and taking the victory in dominating fashion on Saturday, shutting out the Moose 8-0. These rivals won’t meet again until a possible Black Diamond Hockey League championship matchup in March.

The Suns travel to Vail next weekend to face the Yetis on Jan. 5-6. The next home games are Jan. 19-20 against Bobby Farrelly’s East Coast Guttersnipers.