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Winning weekend for Junior A Flyers

October 15, 2014   ·   0 Comments

The Orangeville Jurior A Flyers waited until the last minute – literally – to win Friday (Oct. 19) nights game against the Hamilton Red Wings.

It was one of those fairly rare times when putting an extra attacker on the ice and leaving your net open paid off.

The Flyers were trailing 4-2 at the end of the first period. That in itself is a pretty big  obstacle to over come.

When the teams returned for the second frame, a goal on each end of the ice made it a 5-3 game going into the final 20 minutes.

Orangeville’s Ryan Anton scored on a powerplay at 5:00 into the period and that was followed up by another Flyers goal two minutes later from Devon Gillham to tie the game at five.

The Red Wings again were in the lead when they notched a short handed effort at the midway mark in the period.

Flyers forward Connor Stack again made it a tie game on an unassisted goal.

You couldn’t have written a script to make the final three minutes more exciting when Hamilton scored another to take a lead with the clock ticking down the final few minutes.

Flyers coach Jamie Caruso decided to put the extra attacker on the ice on a powerplay situation and with :48 second left on the clock, Orangeville’s James MClaughlin scored to again tie the game.

With :26 seconds left, the Flyers took the lead on a powerplay goal from Lucas Smilsky.

A final empty netter sealed the deal to give the Flyers the 9-7 win.

“It was one of those games where, it was almost ‘last shot wins’,” Said head coach Caruso,”They’re (Red Wings) a good team. They’ve got some big wins. They got up on us 3-1. I had to call a time out in the first period but then our guys seemed to settled down and we were making up for our mistakes with effort.”

Returning for their second home game of the weekend, the Flyers hosted the Stouffville Spirit with an afternoon game on Sunday.

This time the Flyers led from the start on goals from James McLaughlin, Lucas Smilsky, and two from Ethan Wiseman with one of those being a short handed effort.

A single from O-ville’s Daniel DeRose on a powerplay in the second period ended the scoring for the game.

Neither team could score in the final 20 minutes and the Flyers left with a 5-2 win.

The Flyers played a disciplined and fast paced game.

“We have 13 rookies on this team and guys are very hungry to learn,” Caruso said. “They’re working their butts off. We make a lot of mistakes just because of our age but we do have a lot of offence, and this team in a year from now, when everyone gets some experience, is going to be very good.”

The fact that the current Flyers line-up seems to be a fast paced crew is no accident. Caruso said he deliberately recruited players who had the legs.

“We recruited a lot of fast guys,” he said, adding that he dropped players from last season who simply did not have the speed required for the type of hockey he want to see the team play.

The wins over the weekend have tipped the Flyers record to the positive side and they now have six wins after playing 11 games for the season. With 12 points, they are currently in third place in the Ontario Junior Hockey League’s West Division.

Over all the East Division currently contains the powerhouse teams in the League with Cobourg, Trenton, and Whitby, all racking up 20 points so far. Couburg is in first place with a 10-2 record.

The Flyers will have two more home games this coming weekend.

On Saturday, October 18, they will host the Buffalo Jr. Sabres at the Alder Street arena.

That game is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.

Then on Sunday (Oct. 19) they will be back in the arena for an afternoon game against the Mississauga Chargers.

The puck drop is scheduled 3:30 p.m.

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