Comeback Kids Published on 1/30/2012 4:52:00 PM
With a full weekend off to allow a tough 7-2 shellacking at the hands of the San Diego Gulls the weekend before simmer in their heads, the Flyers returned home January 27-29 for arguably their biggest series of the year, as they clashed for the first-ever time with the Mountain Divisions second-place team, the Boulder Bison.
Looking to hop ahead of Arizona and into third place in the Western Division, the Flyers got off to auspicious starts in every game, allowing the Bison to score first each time and trailed going into every third period. The statistics were stacked against the Flyers, as coming into the weekend, the Bison were 14-2-2 when scoring the first goal in games and 21-1-0 when leading after two periods of play, for the season.
For Boulder those numbers look considerably different after their weekend in Valencia!
The opening game was knotted up at one after the first period, before Will Neff’s marker put the Bison back ahead by one just 35 seconds into the middle frame. The rest of the period, Boulder bottled up the Flyers in the neutral zone and was able to take the 2-1 lead going into the locker room after 40 minutes of play.
The Flyers responded in the third, with one of their best all-around periods of the season, as they came out and took it to the Bison, out-shooting the visitors 19-6.
Goaltender Hunter Fernandez stood strong in net for Boulder, holding down the fort until the Flyers finally tied the game on Ryan Smith’s fifth marker of the season.
With Boulder in the midst of a change, Smith took a pretty feed in stride from leading-scorer Eddie Keshishian and broke in two-on-one with line mate Eric Czarnick.
Fernandez cheated a bit, looking for the cross-ice pass and Smith made him pay, burying a wrister five-hole with 8:11 left on the clock.
Just 17 seconds later, the Flyers struck again, as Czarnick put home his fourth goal of the season.
Cameron Randles’ hard work deep in the Boulder zone forced a turnover and the puck squirted free to defenseman Albert Boyamyan. Boyamyan was able to walk-in to the faceoff dot but fanned badly on his shot attempt. It worked out perfectly for the Flyers however, as it faked out both a Boulder defenseman and the goaltender Fernandez and floated right to Czarnick, who put the puck high into the net to give Valencia their first lead of the game.
The Flyers held off a Boulder onslaught late, including a lengthy Bison power play, to seal the come-from-behind win.
Stephen Palmer got the win in net, stopping 32 of the 34 shots he faced, as the Flyers moved to within a point of Arizona with the victory.
In game two, Boulder once again got on the board first and this time, led 2-0 late in the second period, as the Flyers’ middle period woes continued.
With his team falling flat, Captain Brandon Weise tried to fire his mates up, as he dropped the gloves with Boulder defenseman Josh Rolfe, with Weise getting the narrow win and takedown.
From that moment on, the Flyers grasped the momentum and did not let it go.
Mr. Reliable, forward Eddie Keshishian got the Flyers within one before the end of the period on a spectacular individual play.
Keshishian, the second-leading scorer in the league, knocked the puck away from Boudler forward Taylor Porrier deep in the Flyers’ zone and sped through the neutral zone. Keshishian walked around Boulder defenseman Patrick Grace like his feet were nailed to the ground and flicked the puck up and under the bar, beating Bison goaltender Chris Komma to give Valencia some life.
Entering the third, the Bison now knew the Flyers could come back on them but for the second-straight not, failed to do anything about it.
7:13 into the final period of regulation, Sebastien Beauregard continued his strong weekend by making one of the plays of the year.
The Bromont, Quebec native broke free into the Boulder zone and went wide on Grace, a much smaller man. The veteran defenseman, attempted to play the body on the Flyers’ forward and found himself flat on his back seconds later.
Beauregard maintained control of the puck while delivering a shot to Grace that most NFL linebackers would be proud of, sending him to the ice and breaking himself free.
Beauregard faked a shot and sent the puck in the slot to Keshishian, who’s shot beat Komma between the pads and trickled in the crease before Beauregard pushed it across to make sure.
With all the momentum on the Flyers’ side, they continued to outwork the Bison and rookie forward Austin Ehrlich put the game away with a great individual effort.
Ehrlich corralled the puck deep in the Boulder corner and was able to walk untouched to the top of the circle. His original wrist shot was turned away by Komma but fell free in the crease. Ehrlich dove and extended all 5’7” of his body past two Boulder defenseman and knocked the loose puck between the legs of Komma for his 24th goal of the season.
Again, the Flyers were able to hold on late and win their fifth straight home game behind another exhilarating comeback.
It was once again Stephen Palmer getting the win in net, moving his record to 7-1-1 in his last nine games, as the Valencia High graduate stopped 28 of 30 Boulder shots.
In the finale, the Bison looked poised to not let the Flyers get anywhere close, as they scored two early goals on goaltender Donny Snediker, chasing the Plantation, Florida native from the game just 9:10 into the contest.
Stephen Palmer took over and did not fare much better early on, as Boulder added another before the end of the first, to take a commanding 3-0 lead into the locker room.
Ryan Smith’s power play goal 6:26 into the middle frame pulled the Flyers within two but about a minute later, a Valencia mistake deep in their own zone led to a Dylan Meier goal, putting Boulder back up by three.
Again, the Flyers answered on the power play, as Eric Czarnick put a rebound past the third Boulder goaltender of the weekend, Dax Deadrick, to pull the Flyers back within two.
And yet again, Boulder regained the three goal lead, as the Flyers’ fourth line got caught on the ice after not being allowed to change due to an icing call, and were matched against Boulder’s top forward unit.
Just four seconds into the ensuing shift, Taylor Porrier’s second goal of the game seemed to kill any comeback chance for the home team.
With 4:04 left in the period, the new-look top line of Eddie Keshishian, Sebastien Beauregard and J.P. Bouchard hooked up to bring the Flyers back to life, as Beauregard once again showed his combination of size and skill by demolishing Bison defenseman Preston James deep in the Boulder zone. The loose puck was picked up by Keshishian, who’s back-hand chance hit the post, before Bouchard put it back for his seventh goal of the season.
After 40 minutes of play, Boulder had their largest lead after two periods on the weekend, 5-3, but another collapse was imminent.
For the third-straight third period, the Flyers dominated the Bison in every facet and yet again, lightning struck.
5:38 into the period, Hunter Jensen, who along with Beauregard has provided a huge injection of offense to the Flyers’ offense since being acquired, placed a wrist shot up perfectly under the bar on the power play and suddenly, it was a one goal game.
The Flyers pressure continued and with 8:49 left in regulation, Jensen’s hard work tied the game up.
After defenseman Jordan Furlane partially whiffed on a breakout pass, Jensen used his speed to skate the puck out of trouble and made a beautiful move around Bison defenseman Josh Rolfe across the offensive blue line. Jensen’s centering pass banked in off the skate off fellow rookie Austin Ehrlich and the Flyers had done it again.
The story of game three was not another Flyers’ comeback however, it was the amount of Valencia turnovers that led directly to Boulder goals and with 5:21 left before the buzzer, it happened again.
Defenseman Dillon Thomas failed to get the puck deep into the Boulder zone as the Flyers made a line change. Dylan Meier, Boulder’s best player over the weekend, skated the puck back into the Flyers’ zone and fed Jake Bauer right in front of the Flyers’ net, who re-directed the puck past Stephen Palmer to hand Boulder back the lead.
The Bison would hold strong late and escape Valencia with the 6-5 victory.
Despite the disheartening loss in the finale, the two wins are huge for the Flyers in the standings, as they move a point ahead of the Arizona Redhawks and into third place in the Western Division.
More importantly, they proved they can more than hang with one of the WSHL’s top teams.
The schedule only gets tougher next weekend however, as the Flyers travel to McCall, Idaho for three games against arguably the best team top-to-bottom in the entire league, the Idaho Jr. Steelheads.
The Flyers return home the following weekend, as the big games continue, as they take on the San Diego Gulls on Friday February 10 at 7:15 PM! So bring the whole family out to Ice Station Valencia, as the playoff race heats up!
