Junior Flyers Bantam  Majors (1992's) have strong showing in Nike/Bauer Chicago Invitational

The Bantam Majors participated this past weekend in the Nike/Bauer invitational in Chicago. ILL.  Heading to the Midwest, they were hoping to pick up their stride and gain some momentum.  To say they had a good performance is an understatement to some of the great hockey they exhibited.

The 92's opened up against the Florida Everblades, a team that had beaten them in Silversticks.  Hitting a stride early the Flyers jumped to a 3-0 lead.  The scoring was started by an unassisted laser from defenseman, Jimmy Smith at 8:53 in the first period.  A little less than three minutes later, Bryan Karlovitz feathered a breakaway pass to Sean Driscoll who buried the second tally.  Brian Christie capped off the Junior Flyer scoring for the period on the power play by sinking a rebound off of another Smith blast.

Running into penalty trouble, the Flyers allowed Florida's deadly power play to tie the score and, on a 4-4 situation, retreated to a 5-4 deficit.  The team showed a lot of heart and character by continuing to pressure the Everblades.  They tied it back up with Christie's second of the day and second on the power play from Karlovitz and Tyler Moll.  Connor McStravick sealed the victory at 3:44 of the third period on the power play from Jeremy Vernon and Sam Leech.  Stellar net minding by Kevin Propst kept the wall up and the Flyers rolled to a 5-4 victory.   Coach Marks was quoted saying ""It was a very gutty effort for the boys to find a way to win.  They [Flyers] didn't panic and kept plugging away.  When you do that, you eventually finding a way to win".

The team's second challenge of the tournament came later that night when they faced the storied program from Shattuck Saint Mary's (one of the pre-tournament championship favorites).  The Flyers dug an early 0-2 hole within the first five minutes of the game.  In similar fashion to their morning game, the team did not panic and kept grinding it out.  Connor McStravick led the scoring with an unassisted slap shot from the top of the right circle that beat the Shattuck net minder clean on the far side.  The Flyers took the lead away from Shattuck in the balance of the first with goals by Ryan Frear, from McStravick and Smith, and, another from McStravick from Tyler Moll and Zach Lazarro.

In the second period, Brian Christie netted his first of the game off of a pass from Karlovitz.  Shattuck started the third period off with a goal at the 1:14 mark.  This was immediately answered by a howitzer blast from Sam Leech (assisted by Christie) which took the momentum right back to the town famous for its cheesesteaks.  An insurance goal by Dan Dupell from Moll capped off the scoring and cemented the victory at 6-3.

Notable was the dominating physical play by forwards Sean Driscoll, Matt Wing, and Tyler Moll.  The three of whom provided a tempo for the game that shook throughout the contest.  Equally impressive was an heroic back check late in the second by Zach Lazzaro on a 2-0.  The extra effort not only prevented a shot on goal, but drew a penalty.  Outstanding play from Justin Fielding throughout the game gave the Flyers a chance to win as 33 of the 36 shots were turned away or swallowed up by the young net minder.  Shots on the day were Junior Flyers 37, Shattuck Saint Mary's 36.

Members of the USA Hockey NTDP were in attendance for the game and commented on the outstanding awareness of the Flyers team.  They noted that it was a most enjoyable game to watch.  The Flyer staff was equally pleased in the performance their young players.  "All of the players played for each other and worked together as a unit", coach Marks said.  Assistant coach Scott DiRico added, "they just couldn't keep up with our style of play, this was our day today".

Unfortunately, the Flyers missed their wake up call and were trounced by home town favorites and semi-finalist Team Illinois 0-6.  TI started work on their power play within 15 seconds of the game.  Following ten minutes of work on the penalty kill to start the contest, the team that was so dominating the day before was down by 4 at the end of the first and the outcome looked bleak.  TI scored two more in the second and it was gut check time for the third.  To their credit, the Flyers kept fighting and held TI scoreless in the third.  "We got down early and then you could see them starting to grip their sticks too tight.  That's when you can't buy a bounce.", assistant Coach, and Brampton, Ontario Native Mike Mould said.  "If one or two of our chances [eh] from late in the first [eh] and the second go in [eh], it's a different game".

Later that day, however, the character based 92's annihilated the London nights with a 6-1 bombardment of rubber biscuits.  The staff added that this was a true team effort as all 6 goals were scored by six different players: Christie (Leech), Dupell (Karlovitz), Driscoll (McStravick, Christie), Frear (Leech), McStravick (Vernon), Thompson (Dupell, Wing).  The depleted Flyers dropped their consolation game with a shortened bench the following morning ending off the weekend 3-2.

Overall it was a great tournament and a great experience for the 92's!