October 26, 2013

                  Saturday, EHL action commenced between the Philadelphia Little Flyers and the Boston Junior Rangers at 4:00pm EST at Ice Works Skating complex in Aston, Pennsylvania.   Both teams were coming off big wins as the Little Flyers had just defeated the Philadelphia Revolution 6-1 on Wednesday, and the Junior Rangers had defeated the New Jersey Rockets 8-3, in their last contest.  Neither team came into this game over .500, but the Little Flyers have a chance to go above it in this one.

                  The first period started with a good amount of back and forth play, but then quickly turned in the Little Flyers’ favor as Zach Felser put his 6^th goal of the year past Boston netminder Tyler Fay, which was enough to put the Little Flyers ahead 1-0.  That was shortly followed by the Felser  sending a good feed to Jesse MacIntyre with which he scored his team-leading 8^th goal on the year. 

                  Play in the second period continued to go in the Little Flyers favor as Jesse MacIntyre scored an absolutely beautiful forehand to backhand goal to increase Philadelphia’s lead to 3, for his 9^th on the season, half way into the period.  Though MacIntyre has been lighting up the score sheet, to was his 2-way play that his coach was most pleased with, saying, ”Mac (MacIntyre) has been great our last few games.  He is playing both ends of the ice well, and really focusing on the details of the game.”   Following that goal, Tyler Fay’s afternoon ended, as backup goaltender Matthew Beliveau got his chance to see some action.  Despite the change in net, the Little Flyers offense didn’t slow down as Cole Anderson put the first goal past Beliveau to make the Little Flyers lead a commanding 4-0 going into the 3^rd period.

                  No goals were scored in the third period. This is a credit to both netminders as Matt Beliveau only allowed one goal since coming in halfway through the second period, and T.J. Black was exceptional, allowing no goals through three periods.  Coach Russo had nothing but praise for his goaltender after the game, stating, “T.J. played very well. His last few starts he has gotten a few bad bounces. He is very deserving of a shutout.”

                  The Little Flyers were very happy with this win. Forward Austin Bandura commented, “Each team played a tough game, but I feel it was important we set the tone with two goals early.”  Following this win the Little Flyers improve their record to 5-4-1 and the Boston Junior Rangers fall to 3-7-1.

Brian Forrest