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Little Flyers Sweep Walpole to Advance to EHL Championship Series

By wb, 03/14/16, 2:15PM EDT

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New Hampshire Monarchs Will Be Finals Opponent

The Little Flyers entered the Semi-Finals against the Walpole Express knowing that they had a tough task on their hands if they wanted to advance to the EHL Championship Series. Walpole had a perfect 4-0 record entering the series, while coming off a weekend sweep of the #1 seed Boston Bandits in the Quarterfinals. The Express had limited their previous 2 playoff opponents to 1 goal per game in all 4 contests.  The Little Flyers also boasted a 4-0 record in the playoffs as they had defeated the crosstown rival Philadelphia Revolution in a 2 game sweep. 

Game 1 of the Semi-final started slow for both sides as the game was a bit sloppy. The Little Flyers took control of the action late in the period as Walpole took a penalty. The Little Flyers blasted 5 shots on net during the man advantage but Express goalie Conor Rodericks was up to the task and kept the game scoreless. The game remained scoreless until the 6:24 mark of the 2nd period. The Little Flyers mishandled the puck in their own end and Daniel Eruzione of the Express picked it up and found Tim Thurnau driving to the net. Thurnau wristed the puck over Brock Thompson's shoulder to give the Express the first goal of the series and 1-0 lead. The Little Flyers didn't need long to tie the game up from there. At the 9:02 mark Joe Hall was whistled for tripping and the Little Flyers went on the powerplay. With just :15 remaining on the 5 on 4 Mitch Ossowski took a pass from Pavel Mikhasenok and blasted the puck past Rodericks to tie the game at 1. Adem Arifi assisted on the goal at the 10:47 mark of the 2nd period. The Little Flyers too advantage of the momentum and found the back of the net just :45 seconds later. Austin Kelly took a pass from Phil Zbell and carried the puck wide into the offensive zone, drawing 2 Express defenders toward him. He slid the puck through the defenders to Oleg Potemkin, who was streaking into the zone. Potemkin pulled the puck to his back hand and roofed it over Rodericks' glove to give the Little Flyers the 2-1 advantage. The Express battled in the 3rd period to tie the game but to no avail as the the Little Flyers picked up the victory to take a 1-0 lead in the best of 3 series. Brock Thompson picked up the victory in net, stopping 18 of 19 shots. Rodericks stopped 27 of 29 in the Loss. 

Game 2 gave the Little Flyers the chance to close out the series and advance to the EHL finals, after coming up just short in the last 2 seasons. This time the Little Flyers did not take as long to find the back of the net. Chris Best kept in an Express clearing attempt and fired it to the net. Tyler Pietrowski, while screening the goalie, tipped the puck past Rodericks to take an early 1-0 lead at the 4:44 mark of the 1st. The score remained the same until the the 4:39 mark of the 2nd as the Little Flyers took advantage of an Express penalty to take a 2-0 lead. Mikhasenok one timed  a cross ice pass from Peter Hatton to score the powerplay goal. Arifi also assisted on the goal. Just as they did the game before, the Little Flyers took advantage of the momentum and :39 sec later found the back of the net to extend the lead. Jamie Bucell won an offensive zone faceoff back to Evan Heldt, who whipped a pass across the blue line to Arifi. Arifi wound up and with a big blast fired the puck off the post and into the net to extend the lead to 3-0. The Express pressed to create some offense in the 3rd period but Little Flyer goaltender Sam Kany was up to the task. Finally the Little Flyers put the series dagger in as Tyler Pietrowski netted his second of the game as the Walpole net was empty to make the final score 4-0. Mikhasenok assisted on  Pietrowski's 2nd goal of the game. Kany earned the win in net stopping all 23 shots that came his way. Rodericks stopped 34 of 38 in a valiant effort. Adem Arifi was named the TSR Player of the Series scoring a goal and adding two assists. 

The Little Flyers found out just a few hours later who their Finals opponent would be as the New Hampshire Monarchs Dominated the Connecticut Oilers in a 2 game sweep. The Finals Matchup features the #1 and #2 Powerplays in the EHL during the regular season as the Little Flyers finished at 25.6% while the Monarchs were 24.9%. The Little Flyers were #2 in the league in PK with an 86.6% success rate while the Monarchs were #8 at an 83.5% clip. "I am very excited about the EHL Championship Series." Said Coach Russo. "The New Hampshire Monarchs are a first class organization both on and off the ice. We have a tremendous amount of respect for what they have accomplished and realize that we have a great opponent coming up. We are looking forward to the challenge."