
October 28, 2015 · 0 Comments
By Brian Lockhart3-2 loss to North York in Saturday’s home game
On paper these two teams were pretty evenly matched and when they stepped out onto the ice the stats made a lot of sense.
The Flyers came to the arena with 21points and a 10-4-1 record. The Rangers arrived with 21 points and a 9-3-1 record and first place in the South Division of the South West Conference.
After finishing a scoreless first period the teams returned for the second frame and the Flyers took a quick lead when Zack Vukosa scored at just 55 seconds into the period.
North York tied it up at the 11:55 mark to make it a 1-1 game.
With no more scoring in the second the teams regrouped during the game and came out blazing in the final period to see who could get the edge.
The Rangers broke the tie early in the period on a shot that zipped over Flyers goalie Nicholas Latinovich’s shoulder.
Just over two minutes later the North York squad opened the gap with another goal two go ahead with a two goal lead.
Orangeville’s Derek Topatigh closed the gap on a short-handed goal with less than a minute left on the clock when he rifled a bullet to the top shelf in the Ranger’s net.
The Flyers came close to tying it up on a scramble in front of the net with six at- tackers on the ice when the Rangers goal- ie pounced on the puck and fell back into the net leaving many fans thinking it was a goal but the ruling was that the puck had not crossed the goal line.
The Rangers left with the 3-2 win.
“This is one of the top teams (Rangers) in the League, they’re first place in their division,” Said Flyers head coach Jamie Caru- so, of what they were expecting for the night. “We’re evenly matched with them. We knew if we won this game tonight we were going to be first place in our division.”
The Flyers have been performing really well this season, but have not been doing a lot of scoring.
“This has been the common theme when we do lose this year,” Caruso said. “We’re generating chances. In the second period we had the puck for a lot of time in their zone, we just couldn’t bury it. We’re not fortunate to have two, three or four real natural goal scorers and it showed tonight. When we’re playing against a really good team we have to work really hard to score goals. Our goalie Nic Latinovich – he’s been lights-out for us all year. He’s won us a lot of games. He gave us every chance to win tonight. If we would have scored that third goal, we would have won.”
Latinovich made 33 saves for the night on 36 shots on net. It was also a pretty clean game with the Flyers taking only six minutes on minor penalties.
The Rangers spent four minutes in the box.
The Flyers will be back on home ice this Saturday, October 31, to host the Buffalo Jr. Sabres at the Alder Street arena.
Game time is 7:00 p.m.