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EHL Premier: Little Flyers complete weekend sweep of Renegades

By Tim Riday, 10/18/20, 7:30PM EDT

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The Little Flyers completed their weekend sweep of the Renegades.


BOX SCORE

ASTON, Pa. -- Despite pulling out a win on Saturday night, Mark Catron felt his Philadelphia Little Flyers EHL Premier team took its foot off the gas a little bit in the third period.

Sunday was a different story. Once the Little Flyers pressed down on the pedal, it was nothing but a smooth highway in front of them.

PLF used a four-goal outburst in the final 20 minutes of action to complete a weekend sweep of the New Jersey Renegades in a 5-3 victory at IceWorks Skating Complex.

Nicholas Bouchard, Johnny Zebley, Johnny Lee, Jack Ellis and Sebastian Rominiecki all scored for Philadelphia. Netminder Ronan Marley made 11 saves for his first career junior win with the Little Flyers.

"That's huge for us," Ellis said. "We just have to keep building off that and stay in first place. Felt good. We needed that comeback win."

The opening frame was sluggish hockey. Both teams looked tired after a late puck drop the night before. Passes weren’t connecting and there were quite a few offside and icing calls throughout.

New Jersey struck first after Tyler Ruppert was whistled for tripping. On the ensuing power play, Jason Moskowitz scored with assists going to Dylan Idland and Brian Kologlu at 11:54.

Philadelphia looked much better at the start of the second. The top line of Jon Rineer, Patrick Price and Kelly Stroik pinned the NJ defense and created three good scoring opportunities. 

At 17:35, Steven Griffin jumped up on the forecheck and forced a turnover. His backhanded deke, however, was stopped by Renegades goalie Michael Zuppa, who made 34 saves in the game.

Two minutes later, Angelo Carboni joined an offensive rush with Ruppert on the far wing. Carboni got a shot off that just missed the target and Ruppert recovered the puck in the corner but his rebound was denied by Zuppa.

The Little Flyers continued to dominate possession as the middle frame progressed. At 13:36, Kelly Stroik found a wide-open Patrick Price backdoor. Price made a nice kick move to get Stroik’s pass on his stick but couldn’t squeak his shot past Zuppa.

The Griffin-Ellis-Lee line followed that up with a stellar shift. Anthony Conti and Pat Jensen helped keep the play in the New Jersey zone and the five-man unit combined for four shots.

On a cycle with about seven minutes remaining in the second, Zebley dished back to Carboni, who took two steps in and fired a shot off of Zuppa’s mask.

The Renegades, who mustered just four shots on goal in the period, were on the receiving end of some puck luck at 15:59. James Mattson deflected a Cam Veno wrister that bounced past Marley to make the game 2-0.

Philadelphia finally broke through at 16:53. Carboni had a nice keep at the blue line and the puck went right to Jake Findley. One touch pass later and the puck was behind Zuppa on a wicked snipe from Bouchard that popped the water bottle off the goalie net.

New Jersey reclaimed a two-goal lead at 17:02, when David Renzulli deked Marley on an odd-man rush with Gustav Helm Kurz and James Battaglia.

The third period was all Little Flyers. Zebley got things rolling six minutes in with his first goal of the season. Chris Claycomb and Conti earned helpers on the sequence.

Lee evened the score at 3-3 at 12:26 after his line with Zebley and Claycomb battled hard out in front of the net in a mad scramble.

Philadelphia took its first lead of the afternoon a minute and 20 seconds later. It all started with a smart forecheck from Griffin, who pushed a defender to the boards and positioned himself to pick up the puck and send a quick pass to Ruppert in front. The pass actually deflected off of Ruppert but Ellis was backdoor to slam it home.

Rominiecki provided the insurance marker with four minutes remaining in the game off assists from Bouchard and Carboni.

The Little Flyers have now won three straight and have improved to 4-2-0 in 2020-21.

Loose pucks
With a goal and an assist, Bouchard extended his point streak to six games and now has three tallies and nine helpers this season. ... Carboni has four assists in his last three games and is second on the team with five overall. ... The Little Flyers outshot the Renegades 10-6 in the first period, 16-4 in the second and 13-4 in the third. ... Claycomb (2A) and Zebley (1G, 1A) also had multi-point performances against New Jersey. ... Next up for the Little Flyers is a Friday night showdown with the New Jersey 87s on Oct. 23. Puck drop is scheduled for 8 p.m. at IceWorks.