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The Philadelphia Flyers Junior Hockey team finally make their long awaited home debut this weekend, with two games against the Boston Junior Bruins at the Virtua Center Flyers Skate Zone in Voorhees, NJ.  The home opener will take place Saturday at 7:00pm, with Sunday’s matchup taking place at 1:30pm.

 

Last weekend in North Jersey, the Flyers opened the weekend showcase with an impressive 4-1 win over the South Shore Kings, who are currently tied for first place in the Premier Division with the Hitmen.  JR Barone, Mario Tropea, Martin Picariello and Bennett Altman tallied goals for the Flyers and Bradley Stone picked up the win in goal.  On Saturday against Okanagan, the Flyers dropped a close game 4-3 in a shootout.  They would also drop Sunday’s matchup with Springfield 5-2.  After spending the first full month of the season on the road, the Flyers are excited to finally return home and play in front of a home crowd and hope that home ice can energize them into two wins this weekend against the Bruins.

 

This will be the first time the Flyers face the Bruins this season.  The Flyers are looking for revenge against the Bruins, as Boston was the team that eliminated them in the first round of the playoffs last season.  Against the Bruins during the regular season last year, Boston got the better of the Flyers taking three of the four games the team’s faced each other.  The Flyers are hoping to turn that around this year, and two wins on home ice would go a very long way for this Flyers team.

 

For the Bruins so far this season, the team maintains a healthy 7-2 record, which puts them third in the standings in the Premier Division.  Their only two losses so far on the season came in last weekend’s showcase, where they dropped their last two games of the weekend to the Connecticut Jr Rangers 2-1 and to the host Jersey Hitmen 4-2.  The team is currently led in points by Dallas Farrell, who has seven points on the year.  The 17 year old from Prince Edward Island, Canada, is one of the backbones of the team, and has already committed to the University of Maine.  Nick Sanford has seen the majority of time in goal, playing in six of the teams nine games thus far, and is currently posting a 4-2 record with a 1.90 GAA and a .938 save percentage. 

 

“Last year, we had a lot of returning players, and this year, we have a lot of new players. It’s a good nucleus, with a healthy amount of kids coming back” says Bruins coach Mike Anderson about his team.  The team was predicted to hoist the Dineen Cup before this season began. 

 

Tickets are available at the Virtua Center Flyers Skate Zone Box Office or at USPHLFlyers.com

 

 

Players to Watch:

For the Flyers, it’s been fun watching the Altman brothers play since joining the team before the second weekend of the season, and both players have notched five points on the year and have been involved in some crucial goals.  Keep an eye on both this weekend against a tough Bruins team.  And without using the dreaded “C” word for the state in goal for the Flyers, watch again this weekend to see who Coach Beach goes with in net in a pivotal early season weekend for the team.

 

For Boston, you can’t help but watch Farrell, as the Maine commit is in his rookie year and already a threat on the ice for the team.  Brandon Borges is also a leader on the front end and is one of the few returning players on this team.  Other newcomers like Kevin O’Leary on the blue line need to be watched as well.  Justin Miller is a rookie on the team as well, coming up from the Bruins 18U team where he was the USPHL 18U division leading scorer last season.