By: Brent Maranto

There is not one single player in the Western States Hockey League that has given the Flyers as much trouble as Long Beach forward Johnny Linehan.

The Bombers’ leading scorer had tallied four goals and five assists in three previous games played against Valencia, coming into the two game weekend series.

Linehan did nothing to prove his previous success was coincidence as he continued his haunting of the Flyers, Friday night in Valencia. Long Beach’s leading scorer scored two goals under two minutes apart late in the third period to hand the Flyers a tough home loss.

The Flyers came out hard to start the first period and controlled play throughout the first twenty minutes. The Bombers were forced to the outside all period and failed on their one scoring chance as Steven Estep came up huge on a two-on-one break to keep the game scoreless.

The Flyers had seven opening period chances and capitalized on one, as the red-hot Stephen Stoll notched his eighth goal of the campaign.

With the Flyers swarming, Casey Dennis corralled a pass from David Knowles just inside the Long Beach blue line. Dennis waited for some traffic and blistered a low slap-shot, which Stoll just happened to get a stick on before it squeaked through Bombers’ goaltender Nigel Hinson.

Stoll’s goal gave him points in his last six games, a huge reason for the Flyers’ recent success.

Shots after one were 15-7 and hits were 22-13, both in favor of Valencia.

The second period has tended to plague the Flyers all season, and sure enough it did once more as the home team lost some of the jump they had in the opening 20 minutes.

In the first ten minutes neither team managed much offense at all, as the pace of the game slowed early on. Just after the Flyers were able to put together a few good shifts, the Bombers struck for their first goal of the game at 10:39 of the period.

The speedy Eric Laporte came down the wing to the left of Steven Estep and took a long slap-shot that was kicked out easily, but Laporte never stopped skating and got to the rebound first to beat Estep for his tenth goal of the season. Curtis Fisher drew the lone assist on the goal which seemed to give Long Beach the momentum for the last ten minutes of the period.

Even though Long Beach picked up the pace, the Flyers were able to bend but not break late in the period as Estep made a few good saves thru traffic to preserve the tie until the break.

The third period was no nicer to the Flyers than the second, as again neither team was able to muster much offense, if any for long stretches of time, until Linehan began working his magic.

With 6:15 left in regulation, Linehan picked up a puck just inside his own blue line, stepped around Nick Miner and led a two-on-one up the ice. The forward nonchalantly waited and picked a corner on Estep to give the Bombers their first lead of the game at 2-1.

Linehan’s 17th goal of the season was assisted by both his brother, Tim and Nolan Hopkins.

Just seconds later Todd Graham got the gate for a roughing call and Long Beach hit for their first power play goal of the evening.

Sure enough, again it was Linehan who found nylon for his 18th of the season and second of the game.

The Flyers penalty kill had stymied the visitors for the first minute and a half of the opportunity, but Tim Linehan found his brother on a nice feed from behind the net, and Johnny buried it from the bottom of the circle to make it 3-1 with 4:19 remaining in regulation.

The Flyers fought hard late, and Harout Keshishian nearly made it a one goal game as his snap shot rang off each post before bouncing away, which would be the only real chance they would produce.

Estep took the loss for the Flyers, although not a single goal could be blamed solely on him, as his record dropped to 12-12-2.

The Flyers played the following evening in Long Beach with a depleted roster, missing regulars Alex Descheneaux, Edy Keshishian and also goaltender Steven Estep to injuries the previous night.

The Flyers again jumped out to a first period lead but never looked back this time, tallying two more in the third to take the victory 3-0.

Stephen Stoll continued his hot streak by scoring on the power play at 11:37 of the opening period, off assists from Todd Graham and Harout Keshishian. Stoll’s goal gives him points in seven straight games and vaults him up to third in team scoring for the season.

No scoring would take place in the second period as the Flyers did not allow themselves to fall into their old ways two nights in a row and kept the pressure on.

They did not let up in the third either, as John Dove tallied his 15th goal of the year just about five minutes in off an assist from Stoll to make it 2-0. For good measure Alex Stephens scored an unassisted goal, his sixth of the year, with 1:45 left in regulation to ice the road win.

Andrew Lux got the start in net and impressed, stopping all 24 shots he faced to improve his record to 6-2-1.

The win combined with three straight San Diego losses in Fresno, pulls the Flyers within five points of the Gulls for the fourth and final playoff spot in the Western Division.

The Flyers and Bombers do the same exact thing next weekend, as they meet in Valencia on Friday, January 22 and drive down the 405 freeway to Lakewood the following night to conclude the season series.