Aston,PA — The Philadelphia Little Flyers began their quest for a third straight EHL finals appearance this past weekend as they hosted the Connecticut Oilers in a first round playoff series.  

     Alex Henson, drew the start in net for the Little Flyers in game one, opposed by Olof Djurberg for the Oilers.  Philadelphia was missing major fire power in their lineup as the league’s leading scorer Joey Savel and Avery Smith were unavailable for game one.  Second year forward, Ryan Vogt, stepped up to fill the void in the lineup in the offensive zone.  Just under four minutes into the game Kyle Scott drove wide of the Oilers net with the puck and reversed it back to Vogt who put the puck past Djurberg to take an early 1-0 lead.  Five minutes later the Oilers tied the game at 1-1 when Tim Lopez put a rebound past Henson.  Twenty Nine seconds later, the Little Flyers regained the lead when Nick Daluisio found Mitchell Hall alone in the slot.  Hall, one timed the puck into the back of the net, Matt Sheaffer picked up a secondary assist on the goal.  The Little Flyers penalty kill was a major story in the game as the Home team found themselves short handed seven times in the game.  Henson and the defense successfully killed off two penalties in the first period to take a 2-1 lead into intermission.  

     The second period didn’t begin as the Little Flyers had hoped, the Oilers were back to the power play just fifty eight seconds into the period.  Twenty six seconds after killing off the penalty, Philadelphia was shorthanded once again.  After shutting down the Oilers power play twice in the first five minutes of the second, the Little Flyers got their first chance with the man advantage of the period a few minutes later.  Nate Mickey’s shot was saved by Djurberg but the puck kicked out to the opposite side of the net to a wide open Trevor Lewandoski who scored to give the Little Flyers a 3-1 lead.  Henson was called upon once again to maintain the Little Flyers lead as the Little Flyers successfully killed off two more Oilers power plays in the second period.

     Ricky Walsh, added to the Little Flyers lead just thirty two seconds into the third period.  Lewandoski sent a pass through the neutral zone to Alex Ochterbeck at the Oilers blue line.  Ochterbeck skated in and took a shot on Djurberg, Walsh followed the play towards the net and deposited the rebound into a wide open net.  Several minutes later while shorthanded, Vogt increased the Little Flyers lead to 5-1.  Ziki Mroz and Vogt entered the Oilers zone on a 2-on-1, Mroz passed the puck over to Vogt who fired the puck over Djurberg’s shoulder to pop the water bottle and score his second goal of the game.  Lopez scored his second of the game for Connecticut with under five minutes left to play but it was too little too late and the Little Flyers took game one by a final score of 5-2.

     In game two, Brendahn Brawley was in net for the Little Flyers looking to close out the series.  Just over eight minutes into the game,  Eric Higgins passed the puck up to Grant Rinke in the Oilers zone.  Rinke’s shot was saved by Djurberg, but Nick Daluisio driving towards the net left Nate Mickey space to find the puck and shoot it past Djurberg to open the scoring.  Trevor Lewandoski stole the puck from the Oilers in the Little Flyers defensive zone and sent a pass to Alex Ochterbeck gaining the Oilers blue line.  Ochterbeck, dropped the puck back to Ryan Galvin who sent a wrist shot over Djurberg’s shoulder to take a 2-0 lead.  After the first period the Little Flyers were outshooting the Oilers 13-7.

     The second period of game two began just like game one, with the Little Flyers shorthanded less than a minute in.  Brawley maintained the 2-0 lead making several saves on the Oilers power play opportunity.  Philadelphia’s lead grew to three at the 7:42 mark on Kyle Scott’s first career EHL goal.  Defenseman Brendan Coughlin kicked the puck to Matt Sheaffer who played the puck cross ice to Scott along the boards.  Scott danced around a defender towards the slot and unleashed a wrister over Djurberg’s blocker.  Less than a minute later Keegan Lewis scored for the Oilers to bring their deficit back to two.  The Oilers held a 9-5 shot advantage in the period but went 0-3 on the power play in the second.

     Holding a two goal lead, Mitchell Hall added some breathing room midway through the second period with his second goal of the series.  Rinke played the puck to Hall in the neutral zone, Hall carried the puck into the zone on a 2-on-1 and sent a shot into the back of the net to regain the three goal lead.  The EHL’s Top scoring duo of Joey Savel and Alex Ochterbeck added an insurance goal with under five minutes to play when Savel won a face-off and passed the puck over to Ochterbeck who tapped the puck into the net.  Ryan Vogt capped off his big weekend scoring his third goal of the series on a feed from Hall and Daluisio with just two minutes left to play.  Brawley made 28 saves in his first career EHL playoff game.  

Vogt Named EHL TSR Hockey Top Performer

     On Sunday, The Eastern Hockey League Named Little Flyers Forward Ryan Vogt the TSR Hockey Top Performer in the Little Flyers first round playoff series sweep on the Connecticut Oilers.  Vogt, a 1997 birth year Forward from Springfield, Pennsylvania opened the scoring in game one with a goal 3:58 into the first period and scored an insurance goal early in the third period to give his team a four goal lead.  Vogt’s third goal of the series came with two minutes left in the third period of game two to seal a 6-1 Little Flyers win.  

     In round two of the EHL playoffs the Little Flyers will host the Central Division Champion, Connecticut RoughRiders.  Per the EHL’s operating rules, the teams reseed after the first round of the playoffs, making the Little Flyers the number two seed in the South now which means all three games will be held at IceWorks this coming weekend.  

Game 1 - Friday March 16, 2018 7:30PM 

Game 2 - Saturday March 17, 2018 3:30PM 

Game 3 - Sunday March 18, 2018 12:30PM (If Necessary) 

Photo Credit: Justina Youst; JYostHockey