"These guys knew that we would not accept less than six points this weekend" said coach Ryan Marvin of his Valencia Flyers, after they had just completed a successful weekend where the team picked up all six points to allow them to leapfrog over Sacramento into the third spot in the hotly contested Western Division of the WSHL.
"The Bombers are not an easy team to play" the coach went on to say. "They have solid goaltending and their system suits their team very well. We had to battle for every goal and when we made a mistake they were very good at capitalizing on it."
On Fri. 12/07 The Bombers took Valencia to a shoot-out and The Flyers eventually prevailed on the seventh shot from Casey Crumlish. The next day the Flyers came out with an attitude that not only provided a very physical effort, but it resulted in a solid 8 -1 victory with a couple goals coming from Eric Norton while the remaining six goals were scored by six different players, including Flyers newcomer P J Gilmore who teamed up with Brian Voogt and Andy Jakiel for three goals and were very effective together.
The stage for game three back down in Lakewood was set. The Bombers did not want to be embarrassed and the Flyers were determined to pick up the remaining two points for the weekend. The Flyers prevailed with a 6-2 win and while the game got a bit ugly down the stretch and Christian Starr was sent to the Hospital with a leg injury from a late and unnecessary hit along the boards. Fortunately, the early word is that Christian has a deep bruise of his upper leg and is determined to get back in the line up soon. Meanwhile, Brian Voogt continued his scoring ways with a couple goals while two of the Kyle's each scored a goal apiece (Curry and Freeman) and McGill and Lapp each chipped in a goal as well.
The goaltending duo of Taylor Nelson and Jackson Winkler were solid all weekend long with Nelson picking up the victories on Fri. and Sun. while Winkler got the win on Sat.
The Flyers head off to San Antonio for the Western States Hockey League Jamboree next weekend and they are looking forward to taking on the three top teams from the Mid-west Div.