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    The Junior Flyer Peewee Minor team rolled into Washington this past weekend with an undefeated record. While the team fell in their second game to a tough West Chester Express team in a 0-1 heartbreaker, they responded with true character and finished off the weekend with an impressive 5-1-0 record and took home the Gold medal and a birth to Silver Stick International Championships over Thanksgiving Weekend!

     The Flyers came out swinging and beat the Pittsburgh Junior Penguins 10 - 0 in the weekend opener. Scoring was spread around with offense and defense alike getting into the goal scoring groove while limiting Pittsburgh to two shots in the entire contest. (Scoring summary: Seyfert from McMenamin; Rumsey from Seyfert; DiPrimio short handed from Rumsey; Seyfert - unassisted; Sacks from LeClair and Rumsey; Brown unassisted; Seyfert from Sacks; McMenamin short handed from Seyfert; LeClair from Sidoti and Kaeser; Rumsey unassisted). 

     The evening's contest was a gut check. West Chester, who lost to the Aves earlier in the day, would not go at this game meekly. They came out with a physical game plan to limit the opportunities the Flyers had. Although the shot total in the first period was 9 JR, 1 WC, the game was scoreless. In the second period, West Chester was able to score on their 8th and final shot of the period with 2:45 remaining on the clock. WC netminder, Ruschil turned away all 10 of the JR shots to preserve their lead. The Junior Flyers poured on another 15 shots to no avail and the game ended in a 0-1 loss. Notable was netminder Jason Grande who hung tough while playing with the flu....he did get his own water bottle, of course, which was removed by folks in hazmat suits following the game.

     Saturday turned out to be a good one where the resilient JR team faced tough competition in the NJ Rockets and Washington Little Caps in the first game of the day. The Flyers came to play in that morning game and barraged the Rockets with more than they could handle in the first period. Flyers outshot the Rockets 10-1 in the first and were up 2-0 after a power play goal by Cody Rumsey from Thomas Rocco and an even strength rifle by Hugh Quinn from Marcus DiPrimio. Goals by Josh Maniscalco (from Kevin Brown) in the second and an unassisted tally by Jordan Seyfert in the third capped of the scoring for a 4-0 victory; however, the young black and orange warriors still had one more obstacle later that afternoon in order to secure a spot in the semis and that was against the Washington Little Caps.

    The battle of the Flyers vs. the Washington Little Caps was back and forth early. The Flyers jumped out early in the first three minutes of the game with a beautiful tip by Jagger LeClair on a hard feed from Michael Eland. Josh Maniscalco netted an unassisted goal with a blast that beat netminder Alec Coakley clean. Washington hung tough and came within one on a power play goal by Cam Butler, who scored his second power play goal just under a minute in the third. Not to be denied a victory. Cody Rumsey buried a power play goal of his own from Maniscalco which proved to be the game winner. Thomas Rocco put the backbreaker in with 2:28 left in the game on a rebound from a hard low shot by Dylan Sacks after a feed from Cam Lindsay. With that, the Flyers earned a birth into the semis to face the Long Island Gulls in the morning.

    In the semis, the game started out a bit cautious as both teams tried to feel each other out and was scoreless until Washington's Alec Rovitz scored a short handed goal to go ahead toward the end of the second. Cody Rumsey scored a short handed goal of his own with a little over 2 minutes gone in the third to tie the tie things up after a smart dump down the ice from Maniscalco. Jagger LeClair drilled home what proved to be the game winner on a hard pass from Jordan Seyfert who picked up the puck after a gritty drive by Joey Radina getting the puck out of the defensive zone and into the offensive zone. When asked about the goal after the game Jagger Replied, "well you know, I went to the net hard and good things happen when you go to the net" (he may not have really said that...but we know he was thinking it). A pair of empty netters by Maniscalco gave the boys a trip to the finals to face off against the tough North Jersey Avalanche.

    The finals proved to be a battle with a worthy opponent. The game was very tight throughout. The Flyers jumped out on top with a power play cannon from Maniscalco off of a nifty feed from Connor McMenamin at the 6:29 mark of the first period. The Aves evened the score on a goal by Everett Wardle from Sei-Ho Jin. The score remained even until Cody Rumsey put in a short handed breakaway after a quick stab pass from Hugh Quinn off of a broken play with 5:57 remaining in the game. The game remained that way until the end and the Flyers took home the championship. Final shots 23 - 12 in favor of the Flyers.

    Overall it was a solid showing for the black and orange. Great team efforts were witnessed by all in attendance. The Flyers head back home for a three game home weekend and look forward to some league competition.

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    The 1997 Jr. Flyers kicked off their 2010/2011 campaign with a great run at the Rochester 97' Invitational Tournament placing 2nd out of 24 teams. The Jr. Flyers posted a record of 4-2-1 scoring a total of 31 goals while allowing a total of 19 goals.  The Jr. Flyers took on 4 teams from Canada and 3 teams from the United States.  In pool play the boys lost 3-2 to the Pittsburgh Hornets, tied 4-4 with the Brampton Battalion, won 10-1 versus the Buffalo Bisons and won 3-2 versus the Toronto National. The playoff round kicked off with a 4-1 victory versus the Toronto Red Wings followed by a 6-4 victory versus the Hershey Jr. Bears.  The championship game matched the Jr. Flyers against the Toronto Titans who had posted a 5-0-1 record scoring 20 goals while allowing only 3 goals. The game was well played as the Jr. Flyers fell 4-2 completing a successful opening weekend to the season.  Congrats to all the players.

Champion 2000 Jr. Flyer Team

Champion 16U National Jr. Flyer Team

Champion 18U Jr. Flyer Team

Championship Teams 2000's - 16U National - 18U Majors.

Finalist Teams - 1999's - 1998's - 1997's - 16U American

    The Tier I Elite League boasts the highest percentage of players drafted in the May 19 USHL Draft with a quarter of their talent picked up. The league also came in on top in the USHL Futures draft with 42 out of 90 kids taken. The skills of the players in the league have reached a capacity higher than Minnesota High School Hockey – who came in second with 16% of their players drafted – which can only mean more growth for the Tier I Elite League. “When people are deciding what clubs to play for this is huge because you always want to market and promote yourself especially if you have this kind of representation that we had in the USHL draft,” Colorado Thunderbirds Head Coach Angelo Ricci said – this is the most players the Thunderbirds have in the history of the program drafted with nine. The Tier I Elite League is always garnering scouts’ attention from the USHL, NCAA, OHL and more but an extra spark may have occurred this past season when all four National Champions, U12 through U18, hailed from the league.
“I think it’s a combination of a few things but most importantly the competitive value throughout the whole league helps our success,” Ricci said. “The guys from the USHL evaluating the talent in our league see the best players on the best teams playing against each other and that’s how you can evaluate who can really emerge and play at the next level.” Tier I Elite Hockey continues fine-tuning the league to maintain a top notch program. The board of directors meets every year evaluating what to keep and what to alter. This coming year there will be a few small modifications in the league schedule to benefit the players. “(The board of directors) have done a good job of adjusting our showcases from five games to four games with there being so many injuries last year,” Ricci said “So things like that they’ve improved and I think we’re going to have a more competitive weekend of games because at this level if you’re playing five games in less than 60 hours it can be hard on these kids so they’ve knocked it down to four games and I think you’re going to see better results and maybe not as many injuries. All the more reasons to expect the Tier I Elite Hockey League to continue in its prominence of seeing players move onto the next level of hockey.

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