Little Flyers Split Opening Weekend In EHL Premier Action
Photo Credit: Lindsay Tendler

Aston,PA -- The Little Flyers Premier team saw their first EHL action this past weekend with two home games.  On Saturday they hosted the Central Penn Panthers and Sunday was a matchup against cross town rival Philadelphia Jr. Flyers.  

Kyle Scott opened the scoring for the Little Flyers Saturday with the first goal in franchise history at the EHL Premier level.  Central Penn answered back two minutes later with back to back goals.  As time was winding down in the period, Little Flyers forward Austin Mazzulo, muscled through three defenders to score a short handed goal with just over thirty seconds left in the first.  

The Little Flyers added to their lead on Ryan Sharkey's first goal of the game at the 8:20 mark of the second period.  Just over a minute and a half later Mazzulo added his second of the game, this time on the power play.  Central Penn answered back 16 seconds later to cut into the Little Flyers lead.  Sharkey would put the Little Flyers back up by two on his second goal of the day.  

The third period would be all Little Flyers as Sharkey scored a power play goal six minutes in to the stanza to complete the hat trick.  Later in the period Max McAllister got into the scoring with an unassisted goal.  It was only fitting that the final goal of the day be scored by Sharkey when he notched his fourth goal of the day just 18 seconds after McAllister's tally.  “The addition of Ryan was huge for us from many perspectives.  To gain a player with junior experience, one of only two on our team going into a new venture was extremely important for us.  The way Ryan approaches practice and his demeanor was just what we needed going into game one.  Saturday was a big day for us as an organization; we didn’t play any preseason games and only had five team practices but came out with a win and to have Ryan lead us in scoring was impressive” said Little Flyers EHL Premier Head Coach Mark Catron.  In goal for the Little Flyers, Kolin Grogesky made 27 saves on 30 shots and picked up his first career with in the black and orange.

If you like scoring, Sundays game was for you, as the Little Flyers and Jr. Flyers combined for 20 goals.  Jr. Flyers forward, Kyle Waskalavitch got the scoring started just 53 seconds into the game.  As they would do all day, the Little Flyers battled back, and tied the game at 1-1 five minutes later with a goal from Ryan Baccino.  The Jr. Flyers would go on to dominate the first period, scoring five more times in the period, including three goals in the final 1:21 of play.  Shots at the end of the first period heavily favored the Jr. Flyers 22-2.

The second period didn't get off to the start the Little Flyers had hoped.  The Jr. Flyers added to their lead just 2:46 into the period.  Being down 7-1 early in the second period didn't stop the Little Flyers from competing and battling for every puck.  The hard work paid off when Ryan Sharkey scored his 5th goal of the season at the 5:04 mark.  On the ensuing face off, Sam Clapinson got behind the Jr. Flyers defense for his first goal of the season.  With momentum on their side, the Little Flyers cut into the lead again with a power play goal followed by a shorthanded goal 1:30 later from Max McAllister.  With their lead slipping away and the score 7-5, the Jr. Flyers scored two goals late in the period to get some breathing room and headed into intermission with a 9-5 lead.

The never say die Little Flyers came out of the break firing on all cylinders.  An Austin Mazzulo power play goal just 44 seconds into the third made the score 9-6.  Back on the power play several minutes later, Max McAllister scored his second goal of the game to cut the Jr. Flyers lead to two.  Kyle Scott, got the Little Flyers to within one with a goal at the 5:47 mark.  The two teams would trade scoring chances through the middle stages of the third.  Tyler Johnson was able to give the Jr. Flyers a little cushion with a goal just over halfway through the third.  Johnson would increase the Jr. Flyers lead to three goals four minutes later with his second goal of the day.  Jr. Flyer Charlie Carsello sealed the game for his team, scoring with just over a minute left to play.  When the final buzzer sounded the Jr. Flyers defeated the Little Flyers 12-8 in one of the highest scoring games you'll see all season.  In net for the Little Flyers, Ryan Creenan made 15 saves on 20 shots and Kolin Grogesky made 23 saves on 30 shots.  For the game, the Jr. Flyers outshot the Little Flyers 50-18.  After the game, Coach Catron talked about the resolve of his young team, “Getting down by such a large score to anyone is disappointing enough, but doing so against one of the better teams in our league is scary.  Not often do you go into the locker room at the end of the first period down 6-1, definitely not a position any coaches wants to be in.  There wasn’t any screaming or yelling or pointing fingers by myself or any of the players.  We just talked about character and chipping away at “the wall” in front of us.  I didn’t care what the final score was, I just wanted to see how they would react to adversity.  Hopefully we won’t go through that again but if it happens, we can look back at how they never gave up and the bench was positive the entire game.  I’m proud of the comeback but like most of the season for the boys, we are going to learn from this and get better each day.”

The Little Flyers are back at it this upcoming weekend with two road games.  On Saturday they will travel to Randolph, New Jersey for a game against the Jersey Wildcats.  Sunday will be a rematch with the Jr. Flyers, this time on the Jr. Flyers home ice in West Chester, Pa.  All games can be viewed live with subscription on HockeyTv.Com  or follow the scores online at EHLPremier.Org

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