Flyers at Spirit River Saturday 13th

The second half of a home and home between the two best teams in the NPHL and once again it was the Rangers getting off to the better start. The game wasn't as physical as we were expecting and it was the Rangers who were the more intense of the two teams. Another big second period for the Flyers set up the victory and it was Dustin Kersey with an absolute beauty beating the defence to the red line before cutting to the front of the net and roofing a shot under the bar. To be honest the Flyers played a fairly lackluster game and were outshot for maybe the first time all season. Vizutti was strong in net and two more goals, one into an empty net, for Ryan Carter sealed the victory. I am not going to go into too much detail here since you can listen to a highlights package of the game over at energeticcity.ca/flyers

No fights in the game which I think both Jon and I found very surprising especially given some of the stick work the Rangers call "hockey." I speak in particular of a cross check to the mouth that Dustin Kersey received while trying to cross the blue line. That's not hockey at any level and you hate to see it in a work man's league like the NPHL and against Kersey who is a good player and a good guy as well.

The Rangers barn is not the nicest I have been to but the broadcast location that we were able to use was fabulous. Directly about the benches and within ear shot of the players. Only once did we have to try to ignore some verbals from Lefley (Mike I think) who, safe to say, doesn't like Bryan Lewis. I am sure the folks at home heard the language which is unfortunate but I love being that close and getting an even better idea of what was going on in the game.

As usual the bus ride home with the Flyers was fun. Not profitable but fun.

I am going to give three stars to the Kersey, Wiens, and Carter line. They played well in both games and were the best forwards for the Flyers over the course of the two games. Wiens even had a nice fat upper lip to show for his efforts courtesy of some more Rangers stick work.

Flyers vs Rangers Thursday Dec 11th

The Flyers had a big weekend taking on the top team, at least in the standings, in the NPHL. The Spirit River Rangers were in town on Thursday at the NPA for what was a highly anticipated tilt. I have to admit that I missed the first ten minutes of the game and was very worried that I would have missed my chance to throw my teddy bear on the ice. I made it in time though, as when I arrived, the score was 1 zip for the Rangers. Craig Venhola had opened the scoring before I managed to reach the rink. From what I saw, and from what Jon Zacks told me once I arrived, Spirit River was the better team and were talking it to the Flyers early on. It was Ryan Carter who got the Flyers back in the game late in the first. With Chad Wilchynski in the box for an interfernce call Kip Noble fed a beauty of a cross ice pass from the right hand point to the top of the left hand face off circle. Carter one timed a rocket up under the bar for a power play marker and the teddy bears flooded the ice.

The second period was when the game turned. Some suspect calls by the referee and some overzealous , and frankly embarrassing complaining from the Spirit River bench (including captain Faron Duthie getting tossed for beaking the ref which was also a little embarrassing) coupled with some strong play from the Flyers combined to find the Rangers down 5 to 1 after 2 periods of play. The Rangers scored twice to start the third and make a game of it but that's when the captain popped one home followed by 2 goals on the PP and Flyers ended up taking an 8 to 3 victory in a game in which they quite frankly didn't play that well. Late fight for Tyler Loney against Trevor Mazurek while I was in the restroom. Jon Zacks gave the split decision to Loney.