Aston, PA -- The two games on the Little Flyers schedule this past week couldn’t have been any bigger at this point in the season.  On Wednesday the team traveled about 15 miles to West Chester, PA for a matchup with the 3rd place team in the Mid-Atlantic division in the Philadelphia Jr. Flyers.  Sunday would bring the Mid-Atlantic division’s 2nd place team to Aston, PA in the form of the Philadelphia Revolution, the only blemish on the Little Flyers record so far.  In the Little Flyers season opener on September 18th they lost in overtime 3-2 to the Revolution on the Rev’s home ice at the Revolution Ice Gardens.      

                   While avenging the loss to the Revolution in the first game of the season was on the Little Flyers minds, they couldn’t look past the Jr. Flyers who have been one of the Little Flyers toughest opponents the last four seasons.  Wednesday’s game would see the Little Flyer start the EHL’s reigning Goalie of the Month for November Joe Giacobbo in net, Giacobbo would be tested early, often and continuously over the sixty minutes of play.  Just 1:01 into the first period off of a turnover, Giacobbo found himself all alone with two JR. Flyers players bearing down on him with the puck.  The Little Flyers goalie made a save on the initial shot but the rebound opportunity was there and the JR. Flyers capitalized to take an early 1-0 lead.  The Jr. Flyers would g on to dominate the first period sending 20 shots on net at Giacobbo.  Making 19 saves in the period Giacobbo kept the Little Flyers in the game, lucky to end the first period only down 1-0.  “We were not prepared to play, you could see it in our pregame meeting and the first period showed that.  We were flat, turning the puck over repeatedly, fortunately for us Joe (Giacobbo) made some big saves and kept us in it” said Little Flyers head coach Rocky Russo.

                After only getting four shots on goal in the first period the Little Flyers came out a different team in the 2nd period and would eventually outshoot the Jr. Flyers 17-10 in the period.  The Little Flyers would tie the game midway through the period on a Power Play goal from Ziki Mroz, Cameron Bartkoski and Joey Savel were credited with assists on the play.  Right after killing off a penalty the Little Flyers Brett Abdelnour would be instrumental in giving his team a 2-1 lead.  Bartkoski was able to deflect the puck in the Little Flyers defensive zone, Abdelnour tracked the puck and carried it into the Jr. Flyers zone on a 2 on 2.  With Oliver Arnberg streaking towards the net Abdelnour sent a pass cross ice onto Arnberg’s stick, Oliver did the rest firing the puck into the back of the net giving the Little Flyers a 2-1 lead with two minutes left in the period. 

                Neither team wanted to give an inch in the third period, the physicality picked up and both teams had chances on the power play but neither could convert.  With less than four minutes to play, a faceoff deep in the Little Flyers zone turned out to be costly as the Jr.Flyers Tommy Dougherty and Marko Cohen combined to score the tying goal right off of the faceoff.  With time winding down in the period and a tied game it time to see who would step up for Rocky Russo’s team to keep the win streak intact.  That player turned out to be the aforementioned Brett Abdelnour with a lot of help from Joey Savel.  Savel, was the centermen who lost the draw on the Jr.Flyers game tying goal just one shift prior and he would redeem himself in a big way.  With 2:30 left on the clock and this time Savel deep in the Jr.Flyers zone he would not lose this draw.  Savel went around the Jr.Flyers centermen to get the puck and fired it across to Abdelnour on the backdoor who one timed the puck past the Jr. Flyers goalie for the 3-2.  Giacobbo and the defense would hang on for the 3-2 win, extending the streak to 23 games.  The game would be Giacobbo’s 12th win of the season and he earned every part of it making 38 saves and improving to 12-0 on the year.  “Bad break down on the tying goal, and Joey Savel showed us what kind of player he is.  His next shift out he corrected that mistake by winning a draw, walking the centermen and finding Abs (Brett Abdelnour) on the back end for the game winning goal” said Rocky Russo following the game.  Besides Giacobbo’s play in net that kept the Little Flyers in the game throughout the day Russo had praise for Abdelnour’s all-around game on Wednesday.  “Abs was great in the game for us, hes been really solid all season.  For the most part he has been centering our 4th line and has brought tremendous energy to that unit.  He took on big duties recently playing the wing with Savel and Coykendall while Alex Ochterbeck is out and he’s done a great job.  The energy, emotion and work ethic he brought today was fantastic and he capped it off with a big finish.”

                Saturday brought the Philadelphia Revolution to the Little Flyers home rink of IceWorks Skating Complex in Aston, PA, a date that Little Flyers Sam Kany, Peter Hatton and others have had circled on their calendar since the middle of September.  “The first game left a bad taste in our mouth from the way it ended, guys are ready to step up and avenge that loss” said Captain Peter Hatton.  Kany was in net for the first game of the season, an overtime loss on his season stats and he was back in net Saturday looking to add his 12th win of the season.  This game had a true playoff atmosphere with the top two teams in the Mid-Atlantic division battling it out.  From the drop of the puck there was plenty of physical play with both sides looking to set the tone as the dominant team in the Mid-Atlantic division.  Both Kany for the Little Flyers and Travis Pelke for the Revolution were up to the task as the game remained scoreless through the first 17 minutes of play.  The Little Flyers line of Alex Peterson, Peter Hatton and Christian Karbler went to work with pressure in the Revolution zone cycling the puck.  With the puck behind the net Peterson dropped it to Hatton who found Karbler streaking towards the net, Karbler’s wrist shot beat the Revolution goaltender for the 1-0 lead and Karbler’s 10th goal of the season.  The Little Flyers would take the 1-0 lead into the intermission with Kany making 14 saves in the period. 

                The dangerous Revolution power play had an opportunity to tie the game when the Little Flyers were whistled for a bench minor penalty for too many men on the ice.  Kany would make several big saves and some great individual efforts by the Little Flyers penalty killers maintained the 1-0 lead.  Several minutes later the evolution were whistled for the same too many men on the ice penalty giving the Little Flyers power play the chance to double the lead.  Hatton would again be the set-up man as he gloved down a high pass from Cameron Bartkoski and tried to shoot the puck towards the net, the shot was deflected and Oliver Arnberg got to the puck and fired it into the back of the net to take a 2-0 lead.  The goal was Arnberg’s 10th goal of the season as well.  Later in the period the Revolution had a 2 on 1 opportunity but co-captain, defenseman Chris Best came up with a big play to deflect the cross ice pass attempt up and out of plays.  It was plays like this all day by players up and down the Little Flyers lineup that solidified this team effort.  “Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good, fortunately the guys in front of me made some big plays today.  Best saved me with a block on a bad rebound, Mroz got a stick on a wide open back door play, Lew was all over the place winning battles and blocking pucks.  Bartkoski, Kwant, Coor all did a good job getting the pucks out of the zone” said Kany following the game.  With 20 minutes to play the Little Flyers were up 2-0 and looking to extend their winning streak to 24 games.

                While the first two periods were physical they were nothing compared to the third period with both teams willing to throw the body around which lead to some after the whistle scrums and chirping back and forth between the benches.  We had playoff style hockey in December.  The physicality turned into some questionable hits in the period with the Revolution being whistled for a 5 minute major for kneeing at the 12:06 mark, giving the EHL’s top ranking power play a chance to increase their lead.  On the following play a Revolution player would run into Kany and he would be down on the ice for several minutes, he would eventually stay in the game after being shaken up.  Once play got going again the Little Flyers would take advantage of the power play opportunity.  Hatton with the puck behind the Revolution net would find Alex Peterson all alone in the slot; Peterson fired a wrister glove side into the net for the 3-0 lead and his 10th goal of the season.  The Revolution were unable to solve Kany as the second year goalie would save all 32 shots he faced in the game for his 12th win of the season.  In a true team effort Kany and Hatton stood out in the victory against the Revolution.  After the game, coach Rocky Russo was proud of the efforts of his captain in the win “Peter has been such an important part of our team’s success this season.  He’s not only scoring a lot of points for us but his defensive responsibility and leadership set the tone for the rest of the team.  He takes the ‘C’ he has on his sweater very seriously and always managers to step up in big situations.”  As for Hatton he was happy with the way his team bounced back against the Revolution after that September overtime loss “Goals matter of course but at the end of the day the little things win games.  We had some huge blocks and penalty kills during the game form guys buying in and be willing to do whatever it takes to win the game.  Obviously there was a lot going on after the whistle but I think we did a good job staying smart and focusing on the task at hand which was to win a hockey game” said Hatton.    

                The two division wins extend the Little Flyers current winning streak to 24 games and their point streak to 25.  Kany sees the development in his teammates as a huge factor to the success they have had thus far “The younger guys are starting to realize the importance of a 2-way game.  Our team prides itself on a strong defensive zone and neutral zone. We cause turnovers and counter attack with our speed” 

Kany Named to EHL’s Stars of the Week

For his performance in the game against the Revolution Little Flyers goalie Sam Kany was named of one the Easter Hockey League’s Stars of the Week.  The 1996 born Phoenix, AZ native improved his record to 12-0-1 with a 32 save shutout in Saturday’s win.  In 13 starts Kany has a 1.41 GAA and a .942 Save Percentage.  “Sam has been frustrated all year about his performance in game one of the season.  Our staff could see he was ready for the game all week in practice especially on Friday.  He made some extraordinary saves in a few hostile situations today and he’s tough enough to handle a few dirty hits that he took.  It really shows his mental maturity and ability to stay focused through those situations.” Said Little Flyers head coach Rocky Russo of Kany’s performance Saturday.