November 9, 2013

                  The Philadelphia Little Flyers were in action Saturday evening, facing off against the Washington Jr. Nationals.   The Flyers come into this game looking to redeem themselves after losing their last game in overtime to the New York Applecore.  The Nationals come in with a deplorable record of 1-9-0-1, which would seem to be, and easy win for the Flyers, but you can never judge a book by its cover and that’s exactly what the Junior Nationals were out to prove in this one. T.J. Black would get the start in this one for the Flyers as the Nationals’ coach, Anthony DiPalma, elected to start Timothy Cooney who approached this game with only 1 win in 11 starts.

                  The first period saw the Nationals come out hot, sustaining pressure in the Little Flyers’ zone for the first 2 minutes.  That was about all the dominance the Nationals had in this game as the Flyers took over from there.  Little Flyers took control of play, and really established themselves in the offensive zone; however, Cooney looked sharp early keeping the Flyers scoreless through the first period.

                  Chase Rigsby opened the scoring early in the period, for his first goal of the season.  Coach Russo commented after the game saying, “I’m proud of Chase.  Injury has hindered some of this season for him, and it’s good to see him getting back in the swing of things.” Another player’s first goal of the year was the source of the Little Flyers’ next goal as Garrett Gallagher put home a back door goal to increase the Flyers’ lead to 2-0.  Russo, “Garrett [Gallagher] has been solid for us defensively all year, but lately he has been becoming more comfortable on the offensive side of the ice.  He’s making smart decisions on when to jump into the play, without neglecting his responsibilities as a defenseman, and that resulted in a deserving goal for him tonight.”

                  There were no goals scored in the third period as neither team could capitalize on their opportunities.  T.J. Black’s performance was good enough to seal him his 4^th shutout of the year.  His coach was very pleased with his netminder stating, “It’s a great thing that we almost come to expect these games whenever Black or Derks in backstopping us.  However T.J. [Black] wasn’t alone in this one as our defense blacked a lot of shots and limited their opportunities.”

                  The Little Flyers advance to 8-4-1-1 on the year while handing the Junior Nationals their 10^th loss.  The Little Flyers are back in action a week from now, when they’ll face off against the New Hampshire Monarchs.

Brian Forrest