Flyers Score Six Goals, to seal their Sixth Straight Win
The Philadelphia Flyers Junior Hockey team is “Flying High” after winning their sixth straight game on Friday afternoon over the Springfield Pics. Thirteen different Flyers tallied a point en route to a dominating 6-2 win on the road at Merrimack College.
The question in today’s matchup was not “who had an assist,” as much as it was “who didn’t have an assist,” as all nine Flyers assists in today’s matchup came from nine different players. The first two Flyers to grab assists today were forwards Gregg Burmaster and Dylan Plitt, who found Trevor Gooch for his first of two goals in the game. Gooch’s goal came 4:29 into the first period and would open the perverbial floodgates for the Flyers offense in a first period that saw them net four goals.
Ryan Badger, Devin Brink and Zach Lynes scored in that order after Gooch’s goal, helping stake the Flyers to an early 4-0 lead. With the game seemingly in the Flyers control, the pace of play began to slow down in the second period as the Flyers were held scoreless. The loan second period goal came from the stick of Springfield Pics defenseman Santino Ragone, while the Pics were on a powerplay.
The Flyers would answer back in the third period though as they had the Pics seeing double, with forwards Zach Lynes and Trevor Gooch both notching their second goals of the game. Lynes’ goal, assisted by Sam Buck, was his 7th of the year; which is paired impressively with his 17 assists this year. Gooch’s second goal, assisted by Bryce Eviston, was his team leading 17th of the season, which along with his 11 assists, is good enough to make him the leading Flyers scorer thus far.
Jeff Hextall, in net for the Flyers today, stymied the Pics offense all game long making 23 saves on 25 shots. The only two goals allowed by Hextall in today’s contest came on power play opportunities for the Pics. The Flyers penalty kill unit allowed the Pics to score on 2 of their 3 power play chances today. At even strength though, Jeff proved to be too Hex-tall of an order for the Pics, who were unable to keep up with the Flyers today. Jeff Hextall has now won 3 straight decisions in net for the Flyers, bringing his season record to 3-2 with a 2.98 goals against average.
With today’s win, the Flyers moved to within 2 points of the first place New Jersey Hitmen, who have won 10 straight games. The Flyers have been on a streak of their own though, winning their last six games in a row, while netting 34 total goals over that span. It seems that each game on this streak has seen a different Flyer emerge as the star, as the Flyers have found their early season success by utilizing an extremely well-balanced scoring attack, mixed with impeccable goaltending from all three guys in net (Joe Young, Jeff Hextall and Curtis Frye).
The Flyers will be back out on the ice again tomorrow on the road at 11:40 AM, as they take on the third place Boston Junior Bruins. The Flyers are 2-0-1 against the Bruins this year, with one matchup going to overtime (resulting in a Flyers loss) and another resulting in a Flyers shootout victory.
Written By: Dan Kmiechick
