By Doug Mark

The Philadelphia Flyers Junior Hockey team can finally reap the rewards of a late season surge.  With an impressive final weekend of the regular season up in Massachusetts, the Flyers have earned 8th Place in the Premier Division, and the right to host a play-in game against the 9th seed PAL Jr. Islanders tomorrow afternoon at 1:20pm at the Virtua Center Flyers Skate Zone in Voorhees. 

Since the start of the 2017 calendar year, the Flyers have put together an impressive run of games, going 9-6.  And since their weekend sweep of the Okanagan Eagles on home ice back on January 21st and 22nd, the Flyers are 6-3, including a 5-1 streak in their final six games of the season.  The team has certainly turned it on here at the end of the campaign, with the team firing on all cylinders.  The team was well aware of their position in the standings and how important it was to earn points in their final games in order to stay home for this playoff game.  And an important thing to note is their final position in the standings at the end of the regular season…just two points out of 7th Place behind Springfield, three points behind South Shore in 6th, and four points behind Connecticut in 5th.  All in all, the boys deserve a lot of praise for their efforts in the final two months of the season.

This past weekend in Foxboro, the Flyers put together an impressive effort, going 2-1 on the weekend, including an amazing win Sunday afternoon in the regular season finale.  On Friday, the Flyers fell to the Junior Bruins 6-3.  On Saturday, led by a huge offensive output, which saw nine different players earn multiple points in the game, the Flyers took down the South Shore Kings 7-2, to officially clinch the 8th seed.  JR Barone, Jeff Eppright and Vadim Vasjonkin each scored two goals, and Richie Greenberg put home what would be the game winning goal.  Kyle Walter, Mario Tropea, Tom Terranova, Carter Dwyer and Reid Bibb would each earn two assists in the game.  And Adam Mercer would turn away 31 of the 33 shots he faced. 

On Sunday, the Flyers pulled off another fantastic game…and not to gloat, but it was mentioned as a possibility in last week’s weekend preview…defeating the #1 ranked Islanders HC 4-3 in last second fashion, on a goal by Tropea with just four seconds left in the game.  The win not only earned the Flyers their first win of the season against Islanders HC, but also snapped a 19 game winning streak by the Islanders.  It also put an asterisk on the Islanders end of the season, which saw them clinch the Premier Division regular season champions honors.  In all, it was the weekend the Flyers needed to have, and a great finish to the regular season.

The PAL Islanders come to town tomorrow, and are no strangers to this Flyers team coming in to this game.  The two teams faced off against each other back on February 4th up on Long Island, where the Flyers came away with a 5-1 win.  The two teams split a weekend series in Voorhees back in December, with Sunday’s game being an Islanders win in a shootout.  They also split a weekend up in Long Island way back in early October.  So far on the year, the Flyers hold the season record 3-2.  The Flyers are looking to further improve on that record tomorrow, and earn themselves a trip to the quarterfinals of the Dineen Cup Playoffs.

Around the league, the matchups are set.  In the other play-in game, #7 Springfield will host #10 Okanagan.  From there, the Islanders HC will host the lowest seed remaining.  The Hitmen will host the second lowest seed remaining.  #3 Junior Bruins will host #6 South Shore, and #4 Syracuse will host #5 Connecticut.  All teams will play a best of three series, with all games taking place in the highest seeds home barn.  The same will go for the semifinals and the championship series.  So win or lose for the Flyers tomorrow, this will be the final home game of the season at Voorhees.

Players to Watch:

For the Flyers, we said it last week, and it seemed to be a lucky charm…so we’ll say it again.  The line of Bibb-Vasjonkin-Nardicchio has been nothing but spectacular here at the end of the season.  It’s important to note, Bibb has tallied at least one point in all but three games that he has suited up for the Flyers this year since joining the team, in all totaling 26 points.  Vasjonkin has also earned 26 points with the Flyers since coming over from Boston earlier in the year as well.  This line, along with contributions from everyone else in the lineup, has added up to a team that still has some business to take care of here at the end of the season and in the post-season, and a team that could very easily make some magic happen in the playoffs.

For the Islanders, Josh Haskin has continued to be an offensive force for the team.  The Utica commit has played in 43 of the teams 45 regular season games, and has earned 35 points, just shy of a point per game.  The Flyers will need to shut him down tomorrow afternoon.  Another thing to watch for the Islanders is who gets the nod in goal tomorrow, as the Isles seem to have a big question mark in the crease.  Iiro Salminen has played in 20 games this year, Nicholas Morris in seven games, and Michael DePhillips in 14 games.  And they have each suited up as either a starter or a backup in a dozen or more games, with Salminen being rostered in 34 total.  It looks like the Isles will have to choose wisely for who they want to start in net.