By: Brent Maranto

The Valencia Flyers knew coming into their Saturday evening affair against the Idaho Jr. Steelheads that quick starts go a long way in defeating the powerful opposition. After the lengthy drive North to McCall, Idaho the Flyers jumped out to an early one-goal lead and looked strong. Six straight Idaho goals later, the door was blown open and the Jr. Steelheads were able to cruise to an 8-2 victory in a game that was closer than the score may indicate.

The Flyers showed no signs of being out of sync to begin the game, as the two-and-a-half hour drive to the resort town of McCall showed no effect on the already bus-enriched Flyers.  With a large crowd on hand at Manchester Ice World, overlooking the frozen Payette Lake, Bryan Fiol was able to put home a rebound just over five minutes into the game to hush the crowd and give Valencia a 1-0 lead.

Fiol’s 17th goal of the season came from David Tagvoryan and John Dove at the 14:35 mark of the opening period.

From that point on however, Idaho turned it up another gear, the same gear that is going to give Fresno a run for their money come playoff time.

Just about three minutes after Fiol’s opening goal, Idaho was able to keep consistent pressure deep in the Flyers’ end. With 11:07 left in the first period, KC Fraize put a rebound home to tie the game at one a-piece. Zaid Hussein and Josh Schamber garnered the assists on the even strength goal.

The pressure continued later in the period as the top line of Idaho was a riddle the Flyers were unable to solve all evening. Big Swedish winger Viktor Karlsson took a pass from Stephen Rock in the corner and walked out to the circle. Karlsson used his size to cut to the net and beat Steven Estep with a back-hander into the top of the net.

Just before the period ended, the Jr. Steelheads would strike once more to head to the locker room up 3-1. Patrick Anderson’s shot was stopped by Estep but the rebound sat nicely for Justin Videen who wasted no time and potted his 14th of the year with 2:07 left in the first period.

Idaho’s power play was unsuccessful in one chance in the opening period, but the three goals at even strength were more than enough to keep a strong hold on the game.

Shots after one period of play were 16-9 in favor of the home team, as were scoring chances at 6-1 and hits at 18-17.

Idaho kept in coming in the second, not wanting to let a feisty Valencia squad back into the game as they did the night before. Just over two minutes into the period, Zaid Hussesin found a loose puck and puck it past Estep to make it 4-1 Idaho with 17:59 left. Mitch Skaggs and Ryan Maul notched assists on Hussein’s 14th goal of the season. Just 29 seconds later, Justin Videen found twine for his second of the game and 15th of the season. Videen broke in on a two-on-one and elected to shoot from the faceoff dot to the right of Steven Estep. Estep kicked the rebound out to Videen, who stopped up before passing the net. Videen immediately put the rebound back to make it 5-1 in favor of the home team.

Another unassisted goal nearly half-way through the period would officially mark the Idaho onslaught. Dallas Crum used his speed to break down the wing and cut to the net, his quick snap-shot beat Estep clean with 11:41 left in the middle stanza to make it 6-1.

The Flyers would not give up without a fight once more, and were able to draw a few penalties late in the period. With a five-on-three advantage the Flyers power-play set up shop with hopes of getting anything going. David Tagvoryan took the puck behind Idaho goaltender Spenser Brown and patiently waited for things to open up. Sure enough Bryan Fiol slipped free in the slot and Tagvoryan hit him on the tape. Fiol one-timed the puck past Brown to pull the Flyers within four. Fiol’s second of the game and 18th of the season came off assists from Tagvoryan (also his second point of the game) and David Knowles.

No more scoring would transpire in the final six and a half minutes of the period and the buzzer would sound with Idaho well ahead, leading 6-2.

The third period was the slowest of the period and rightfully so as the game was well in-hand and both teams began to show some wear after a long ride and tired legs.

With 8:19 left in regulation, Mitch Skaggs put home a Ryan Maul rebound on the power-play to make it 7-2.

For good measure tough-guy David Fegler found the score sheet with his 19th goal of the season with 1:23 left in the game. Fegler took the puck from Todd Graham at the Idaho blue line and broke in all-alone from the red line in on goaltender Andrew Lux. Fegler snapped a shot that went off the glove of Lux and in to put the game away at 8-2.

The Flyers have now lost the first two of a three game set in Idaho and they have now gone 0-4-1 on the year against the second place Jr. Steelheads.

Steven Estep took the loss for the second night in a row, evening his overall record at 14-14-1. Estep faced 28 shots over two periods and stopped 22; it should be added that 12 of those shots were grade “A” scoring chances. Andrew Lux started the third period and stopped 11 of 13, while not factoring on the score sheet. Spenser Brown, Idaho’s number one goaltender, took another win while moving his record to 15-3-1

Final shots were 41-22 for Idaho and scoring chances were 20-7 for Coach John Olver’s club. Oddly enough total hits were even for the second night in a row, with both teams getting credit for 44. Idaho’s vaunted power-play clicked for one goal over three chances, a stat the Flyers’ would likely take every night against Nate Stanley and company. The Flyers scored one power-play goal on six total chances, a stat they would not take on a nightly basis.

The Flyers return home next Friday, Saturday and Sunday for two with the Arizona RedHawks, with a Bakersfield affair sandwiched in between. Check it all out here on Valenciaflyers.net.