It has been a while since an update on how the team has been doing; therefore this one will be a bit long so everyone can get caught up.
After starting the season 5 -0 the Flyers were headed to Phoenix to face the Polar Bears and their biggest test to that point of the season, facing Phoenix on the road for a three game set. The Flyers were able to open up the road trip with a win and extend their winning streak to 6 games beating the Polar Bears 5-2. Unfortunately, the streak ended there as the Polar Bears handed the Flyers their first loss of the season in a close 3-2 game the next day. The Flyers bounced back with another convincing 5-2 win on Sunday to take the three game set 2-1. The hot hands for the Flyers on this weekend belonged to the members of the potent scoring line of: team captain Andrew Monesi (9 points on the weekend), Saugus native Brian Voogt and rookie forward Daniel Chang (each with 5 points on the weekend).
Next the Flyers would head into a four game weekend during the WSHL Western Division Showcase. All five teams in the division met in the greater LA area and all played four games over three days. The first game for the Flyers was against San Diego. And during their first meeting of the season the Gulls prevailed in a hard fought 4-2 game. On day two of the showcase the Flyers got their revenge on the Gulls beating them 5-1 before remaining undefeated against the So Cal Bombers in a 4-0 win. The win marked both the first shutout of the season for the flyers and the first career shutout for rookie goaltender Andrew Lux. The Flyers faced San Diego in the last game of the showcase in a match that would keep everyone on the edge of their seat. Both teams had chances to put the game away as the lead changed hands four times on a way to a 9-8 overtime win for the Gulls. With that OTL (overtime loss) the Flyers would walk away from the showcase with a 9-2-1 overall record (again with the 1 being an OTL and not a tie) and a solid hold on first place in the Western Division. And the big standouts for the Flyers over the four game showcase were defenseman Tyler Gilmore (7 points) and goaltenders Andrew Lux and Noble Tucker (each getting a win and having a .95 save percentage or higher on the weekend).
The Flyer s' next action came via a home and away weekend series with the Bombers. The first game, which was at Ice Station Valencia, was an easy 10-2 victory for the Flyers in which seven of the Flyers would tally goals. In game two of the weekend series the Flyers would come away winners again in a nail-biting 4-3 shootout win. The big guns for the Flyers over the two games were Brian Voogt (6pts), Daniel Chang (5pts), Valencia native Anthony Kendryna (4 pts) and former NAHL defenseman Nic Calma (3pts). With defenseman Alex Brodetsky's game winning shootout goal in game two, the Flyers remained at the top of the Western Division and the entire WSHL with a 10-2-1 record.
The next challenge the Flyers would have to answer to was another three game weekend on the road. This time the Flyers headed north to Sacramento to face the Capital Thunder. As the Flyers' offense was clicking well all weekend their defense was nothing to write home about. However, the Flyers still managed to add three more wins to their record and remain perfect against the Thunder with two 7-5 victories and a 2-1 win to cap off the weekend. The heroes for the Flyers on the scoresheet over the three games were Anthony Kendryna (7pts), Brian Voogt (6pts), Flyers veteran Christian Starr (6pts), Daniel Chang (5pts), and rookie forward Casey Howard (4pts). And Jackson Winkler, another Santa Clarita Valley native, collected all three wins for the Flyers between the pipes.
Still in first place the Flyers returned home to face-off with Phoenix in another three game weekend. The first two games both went the Polar Bears' way as the Flyers turned in two lack luster performances and lost 5-2 and 5-0. On Sunday the Flyers finally showed how they can play and evened out the season series three games a piece with another 5-2 win over the Polar Bears. Christian Starr led the way over the weekend with three points while Gilmore, Monesi, Chang, and Howard all had 2 points.
The following weekend the road called again as the Flyers headed to San Diego for their first road game against the Gulls. As the game entered the third period it looked like the Flyers were on the way to an easy win being up 5-2 but the Gulls came back hard and pushed it right up until the final buzzer barely letting the Flyers squeak out a 5-4 win. The next morning the Flyers were off to Lakewood to face the Bombers in their sixth meeting of the season. Having prevailed in the previous five meetings the Flyers might have been under-respecting the Bombers as they fell short and lost 2-1. The leading scorers for the weekend were Chang (3pts), Monesi (2pts) and Voogt (2pts) while Winkler received the win in the San Diego game.
With a league leading record of 16-5-1 the Flyers headed back down the I-5 to square off with the Gulls again. In their only game on the weekend the Flyers came out flat and quickly went down 2-0 during the first period. They started to regroup in the second period and after getting some offense going went into the third period tied with San Diego at three. The third period was all Flyers as they outscored the Gulls 4-1 in the final frame to win the game 7-4. Rookie Defenseman Chris Victoria (Wildomar, CA) tallied the most points on the night, netting one goal and two assists, while defenseman Steffan Buck (Fresno, CA) and Mickey Allison (Seattle, WA) each had two points in the winning effort.
This finally brings us to last weekend when the Flyers returned to Sacramento for their final road trip north for the regular season. As the Flyers battled hard all three games it was a difference of a few bounces and some goaltending that kept the Flyers from winning all three games and remaining undefeated against the Thunder. The first two games of the weekend the Flyers outshot the Thunder a combined 126-43 but ended up losing both games 6-2. In the third and final match-up of the weekend the Flyers outshot the thunder again, this time the shots were 79-64 and the Flyers won 6-2. Offensive standouts on the weekend were Monesi (5pts), Voogt (3pts), Calma (2pts), Brodetsky (2pts) and newly added forward Brandon Butler (2pts). And besides getting another win in net, Winkler also managed to tally an assist.
With the final scores in around the league going into the Thanksgiving break, the Flyers now sit in second place with a record of 18-7-1; trailing the Phoenix Polar Bears by only three points.
The next Flyers game is Sunday December 7th at 10:20am at Ice Station Valencia. They will be taking on the Capital Thunder, and
after dropping two recent games to them look for the Flyers to come out hard as
they try to settle the score.