The 99 Jr Flyers recently joined 23 of the best AAA clubs from across North America and Canada at the Little Caesars Invitational in Troy Michigan. Early on, the Jr Flyers established themselves as one of the teams to beat by blanking the Toronto Red Wings 5-0. Building on their early momentum, the 99's continued to post two more shut-outs with their smothering defense and great goaltending from Jason Grande against Little Caesars and York Simcoe Express. They become the only team to post shut-outs in all three preliminary games and one of only two teams to win all three of there preliminary games.

   In their first play-off game, local favorite Victory Honda became the first team to score against the Jr. Flyers, in a battle that ended in a 2-2 tie after regulation. However, thirty seconds into overtime Jordan Seyfert ended the suspense with the game winner that made the Jr Flyers the sole remaining US team in the tournament. Early the next morning, the 99's found themselves in a dogfight after letting-up two early goals to the Vaughn Kings. A quick goal at the beginning of the third period seemed to turn the momentum towards the Jr Flyers, but Vaughn fought back the Jr Flyers relentless attack and held on for a 3-2 victory to end the Jr Flyers run. Although the loss kept the Jr Flyers from reaching their goal of a championship, their play against the elite competition was another step toward establishing themselves as one of the premier squirt minor teams.

   The Jr Flyers Midget AAA team opened the tournament defeating Northeastern powerhouse, the Buffalo Regales’ 4-0. The Jr Flyers next game would be 3 ½ hours later against a fresh New Jersey Hitmen’s team. This team is an independent team classified as U19 from Wayne NJ.  The Jr Flyers had a little tougher go in this game. The Hitmen were short players for this game and needed to bring down 5 players from their league leading EJHL Jr A team. These 5 players combined for all four goals in a 4-2 NJ Hitmen win. Unfortunately this would be the only game these players would play in. Without these five EJHL players the Hitmen dropped their next game 7-1 to the Little Bruins and then dropped another to the Buffalo Regals 3-1 the following day.

    Notes: There is a buzz in the Jr Flyers locker room after every tournament or showcase. Three NHL teams continue to follow the team tracking Eric Knodels progress.  Along the way scouts have managed to notice a couple other players. Andrew Lamont is now on radar screen with one NHL team and Zack Sarig is on another teams list. Sean Driscoll has attracted the attention of teams from the Quebec Major League while line mate Brian Christie has been getting attention from the OHL. Lamont, Latta, Knodel, and Varley have attracted some USHL, NAHL and some D-1 and D-3 college attention. Zach Sarig has Canadian Junior teams interested. NHL Central scouting has been at four of our games that we know about.

This is an exciting time to be a Jr Flyer.

   The Junior Flyer 1995's had an impressive showing in the annual Nike/Bauer Invite in Chicago this past Halloween Weekend. The Flyers earned the top seed in the preliminaries by posting victories against Wisconsin Fire 3-2 and Markham Majors 2-1 on Friday 10/31, then tying Detroit Compuware 1-1 to solidify the birth to the round of 16 playoffs where they eliminated the NJ Avalanche 5-3 to advance to the semis. Although Canada's # 2 Ranked 95 team, Welland Tigers, were resilient to the pressure applied by the Flyers and defeated them 3-0 in the shortened semis, it was a solid effort by the squad and a very positive weekend overall.

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    Of the top 20 forwards in our rankings, seven are WCHA rookies, while the CCHA and Hockey East each have five skaters mentioned. ECAC Hockey is responsible for three newcomers on the list. USHL alums comprise eight of the 20 spots in this year's rankings. Inside College Hockey compiled its 2008 Recruiting Rankings with extensive input from college coaches as well as professional scouts. Participants were asked to evaluate recruits based on their projected impact at the college level, not on their professional hockey prospects

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   The Midget Major 18U team started the tournament with a 5-1 win over Boston Advantage. Stopping in to watch the game was the Yale varsity Coach. He was overheard talking to the other coaches with him stating "This is the team O'Neill came from" that he wanted to check out the game.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – USA Hockey today announced the 22-player U.S. University Select Team roster, as well as six alternates, for the upcoming 2009 Winter World University Games. The event will take place in Harbin, China, from Feb. 18-28, 2009.
   The U.S. team, which was picked from an evaluation camp last month, is comprised of players from collegiate ice hockey teams affiliated with the American Collegiate Hockey Association.
The U.S. lineup up front includes Jim Gehring (Chester Springs, Pa./West Chester University), the 2007-08 ACHA Men's Division I Player of the Year.
    In goal, Jim will team with Paul Marshall (Orland Park, Ill./Ohio University), an ACHA Third Team All-American in 2007-08.
    Joe Augustine is currently in his 20th season as head coach at the University of Rhode Island, where he has compiled a 390-170-33 record, 19 consecutive winning seasons and one ACHA National Championship (2006). He won back-to-back ACHA Men's Division I Coach of the Year honors in 2004-05 and 2005-06, and was the Eastern Collegiate Hockey Association Coach of the Year in 2003-04.