Blaine, MN – The Philadelphia Little Flyers 18U team was in Blaine, Minnesota this past weekend for the first event of the 2019-20 season,  the event drew over 350 scouts, including all 26 NAHL teams during the five day event.  In Game one, the Little Flyers played Omaha AAA Hockey Club who has been one of the top Tier 1 18 U programs in the country over the past several years.  Omaha got on the board early in the first period with an even strength goal from Andrew Kozol.  The Little Flyers battled back from the early deficit but couldn’t find the tying goal in the first period.  Kozol, struck again in the second period to give Omaha a 2-0 lead.  Philadelphia had a lot of good scoring chances in the second and third periods but couldn’t put the puck in the net, as they dropped game one by a final score of 2-0.  The offense had plenty of chances as the total shots in the game slightly favored Omaha 24-23.  Harris Brotman finished the game with 22 saves for the Little Flyers.

In game two, the Little Flyers played Green Giants out of Minnesota.  After falling behind 2-0 in the first 12 minutes of play, the Little Flyers offense came to life in a big way.  TJ Avellino started the scoring with a power play goal at the 14:21 mark of the first period.  Avellino’s goal was assisted by Jack Costible and Lukas Washco.  One minute later, David Matousek tied the game at 2-2 taking a pass from Patrick O’Connell and Rasmus Berrebbeah.  Matousek struck again early in the second period to give the Little Flyers the lead, and they would never look back, Berrebbeah and O’Connell picked up their second assists of the game on Matousek’s eventual game winner.  Koby Howat and Matousek scored goals less than two minutes apart mid-way through the second period to put the Little Flyers up by 3.  Howat’s goal was assisted by Braedon Dougherty and Jake Moleski.  Doughtery gave the Little Flyers a commanding four goal lead heading into the second intermission with the helper going to Byron Hartley.  Just over a minute into the third period, Trent Gehringer found the back of the net with Patrick O’Connell picking up his 4th assist of the game on the power play.  David Matousek capped the Little Flyers scoring, lighting the lamp for the 4th time in the game with O’Connell picking up his 5th assist in the contest.  Liam Gross secured the win in goal, making 10 saves. 

Saturday’s game against Des Moines was a back and forth affair in the first period.  The Buccaneers were able to get on the board first, scoring just 1:53 into the first.  Lukas Washco answered back for the Little Flyers to tie the game at 1-1.  Washco’s first goal of NAPHL play was assisted by Byron Hartley and Jack Costible on the power play.  Des Moines regained the lead with 10 minutes left to play but Jake Moleski tied the game back up at 2-2 just 12 seconds after Des Moines regained the lead.  Moleski’s even strength goal was assisted by Byron Hartley and Washco.  Hartley gave the Little Flyers their first lead of the game several minutes later with help from Tyler Wnek and Cole Soster.  The Buccaneers Cam Crolley tied the game up with under two minutes left to play to send the teams into intermission deadlocked at 3-3.     

The second period was a tightly contested one, with the two teams remaining tied but exchanging scoring chances back and forth.  Rihards Mertens scored the go ahead goal for Des Moines at the 12:11 mark of the second period.  The Little Flyers efforts to tie the game came up short in the third period as the Buccaneers scored a goal with less than two minutes remaining in the game to take the game by a final score of 5-3.

In the final game of the weekend, Koby Howat gave the Little Flyers a 1-0 lead just 1:16 into the first period.  The goal was Howat’s second of the weekend, with Patirck O’Connell and David Matousek registering assists on the play.  Team Illinois’ Michael Imala tied the game with under a minute to play in the first period with an even strength.  David Matousek found the back of the net for the 5th time of the weekend just 16 seconds later to give Philadelphia a 2-1 lead after the first 17 minutes of play, Conor Booth and O’Connell added assists on the goal. 

Matousek struck again the in second period, this time on the power play, as was the case all showcase long, O’Connell picked up an assist on the Matousek goal with Koby Howat being credited with the primary assist to give the Little Flyers a 3-2 lead.  Byron Hartley added two goals in the second period.  His first was the Little Flyers second power play goal of the game, set up by Trent Gehringer.  Hartley’s second of the period came courtesy of an assist by Jake Moleski.  Team Illinois found the back of the net twice in the third period but the Little Flyers defense and Liam Gross held on for the 5-4 victory.