Tremendous Scoring Highlights Recent Play

After a weekend which saw 11 WSHL players score at least seven points in their respective series, one friend and graduate of the Boise Area Youth Hockey Association program replaced another at the top of the WSHL scoring list.

Prior to last weekend, Idaho Junior Steelheads center and captain, Justin Videen, led the league with 26 points.  In a three game sweep of the Ogden Mustangs, center Taylor Crawford, who grew up playing hockey with Videen and is now captain of the Cheyenne Stampede, scored a whopping 13 points to vault to the league scoring lead with 13 goals and 22 assists for 35 points to date.  Crawford had 3 goals and 4 assists on Friday against Ogden, one goal and two assists in the Saturday game, and 2 goals and an assist on Sunday. His assist was on the game-winning goal with 26 seconds left in overtime.  Meanwhile, Videen’s Junior Steelheads team played only one game last weekend, defeating Park City 7-2 on Saturday night, and Videen was held without a point.

In the meantime, six other players had extremely productive weekends to overtake Videen on the scoring charts.  Now tied with 32 points each behind Crawford’s 35 are Nick McKee of Fresno, Eddie Keshishian of Valencia, and Chris Guidotti of Boulder.

• McKee, the 5’7”, 165 lb forward from Bakersfield, had 4 goals and 5 assists in a 9 point weekend in the Monsters sweep of Phoenix.
• Keshishian, a 5’8” 165 lb. forward from Arleta, California, scored 6 goals and 1 assist in the Flyers’ sweep at Arizona.
• Guidotti, the 5’7” 170 lb. forward from Fort Collins, Colorado, had led the league for several weeks before Videen took over. This last weekend, Guidotti picked up 3 goals and 4 assist in the Bisons sweep of the Texas Brahmas.

The other three players whose successful weekends propelled them over the previous week’s leader in the scoring race include Guidotti’s Boulder teammate, Ryan Gauthier, and two El Paso Rhinos, Michael Rivera and Carl Graf.

• Gauthier, 5’9” 200 lb. from Glenwood Springs, Colorado, had 4 goals and 3 assists against Texas to bring his season totals to 15-13-28.
• Rivera, the 5’9” 175 lb. from El Paso, garnered 4 goals and 4 assists against the Dallas Snipers to end the weekend at 11-16-27.
• Graf, a 6-2, 190 lb. from Stockholm, Sweden, had a mammoth weekend against the Snipers, scoring 4 goals and 6 assists for 10 points to now tie him with Videen at 26. (8-18-26) Graf had 2 goals and 5 assists on Friday night and 2 goals and 1 assist on Saturday.

In addition, four other players had at least seven points in last weekend’s games.

• Trey Hughes of El Paso, a 5’10” 180 lb. forward from Lino Lakes, Minnesota, had 4 goals and 4 assists.
• Ryan Carroll of Cheyenne, a 5’8” 150 lb. from Colorado Springs, earned 3 goals and 4 assists.
• Taylor Porrier of Boulder, a 5’9” 170 lb., from Rutland, Vermont, scored a goal and 6 assists.
• Will Neff of the Bison, a 5-9 150 lb. from Fort Collins, had 3 goals and 4 assists.

Not all of these players will be in action this coming weekend. Crawford, Carroll and their Stampede teammates will face Guidotti, Porrier, Neff, and Gauthier as Cheyenne and Boulder have a home and home on Friday and Saturday.  Keshishian and the Flyers will entertain the San Diego Gulls in a one-gamer on Saturday night.  Videen and his Junior Steelhead mates head south for a 3 game series at Long Beach.  Neither El Paso nor Fresno have games scheduled, so McKee, Rivera, Hughes, and Graf will be idle.

In other league games this weekend, Arizona will visit Phoenix for three. Park City travels to New Mexico for three. The Dallas Ice Jets are at Texas on Friday and then will host the Snipers on Saturday and Sunday.

Submitted by Dick Dorfman – Junior Steelheads Play-by-Play – (208) 514-5419