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Keeping Up with Kyle - Week #10

By Kyle McKenna - HNIB Beat Writer, 12/01/20, 4:00PM EST

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Express Win Thanksgiving Showdown, Little Flyers Keep Momentum Rolling

BOSTON, MA -- Monday morning marked a rare sight for the Eastern Hockey League (EHL). Why?

There were zero changes for the league’s weekly power rankings in both the Eastern Hockey League (EHL) and the Eastern Hockey League Premier (EHLP).

While Week #10 entailed fewer games than usual, there were still exciting contests that took to the ice and an EHL-first.

Hockey Night in Boston (HNIB) recaps Week #10 for another edition of Keeping Up with Kyle.

New England Conference

For the first-time ever, the EHL entailed hockey on Thanksgiving Day. The Junior “A” league launched its 'Thanksgiving Showdown' which was played between two New England Conference (NEC) rivals in the Walpole Express and the Seahawks Hockey Club.

The Seahawks hosted Walpole that morning at Tony Kent Arena on Cape Cod, but it was the Express who skated away with the victory. After falling behind early in the contest, Walpole defeated the Seahawks by a score of 3-1.

The Express’ Lorenzo Marcolin netted two goals and also earned honors for the league’s top performing forward.

“Thanksgiving is always an amazing time with family," said Marcolin. “As much as I missed going home and spending time with relatives, I was able to play the game that I love. It’s been a while since I’ve been so pumped up for a hockey game.”

The two squads met again on Sunday, when again it was Walpole that took home two points for the NEC standings. Marcolin found the back of the net in consecutive contests while helping the Express earn a 3-2 victory. The Saratoga Spring, NY native enters Week #11 with 15 goals and eight assists, which ranks second on Walpole. Additionally, Express netminders Eric Buchholz and Mason Palmer split duties over the holiday weekend series vs. the Seahawks. The Express are riding a four-game winning streak and it appears Walpole won’t surrender its spot in the power rankings any time soon.

There was another memorable weekend series that took place in the NEC. The New England Wolves and New Hampshire Avalanche faced-off, which also marked three consecutive games between the rivals.

While New England is the only team this season that’s defeated the Avs more than once, New Hampshire broke out its broom sticks and completed the weekend sweep. The Avs took down the Wolves by scores of 5-2 in both contests, this past Saturday and Sunday.

In the first matchup, it was Dylan Roebuck (1g-1a) and Parker Sondag (1g-2a) who led the way for the Avs on the scoresheet in addition to goaltender George McMichael who collected his ninth win on the year. McMichael’s nine victories between the pipes also rank first for the EHL.

The second contest witnessed a multi-point effort from New Hampshire’s Andrew Clifford (1a-1a), and top performing defenseman of the week Christian Halbig recorded four assists on the day. Avs' masked man Ronan Mobley earned his second win for the 2020-21 campaign, after the Playa Del Ray, CA native turned away 26 New England shots.

The East Coast Wizards and Boston Jr Rangers were also in action. However, the Jr. Rangers handed East Coast its fourth consecutive loss on Sunday. Boston defeated the Wizards by a score of 4-2, after Jack Moore netted one goal and chipped in two helpers for a three-point outing.

Additionally, Markus Cook (0g-2a) and Ryan Bailey (1g-1a) inked multi-point efforts, which also helped Boston extend its winning-streak out to three games.

Mid-Atlantic Conference

There were only a handful of contests for the Mid-Atlantic Conference (MAC) in Week #10, which all took place on Monday and Tuesday. The New York Apple Core snapped their three-game losing streak when they took down Team Maryland, 3-2. However, Team Maryland returned the favor with a 5-2 victory on Tuesday.

As for Maryland, the team enters Week #11 having dropped five of its last six games. What’s also interesting is that both teams were 1/7 on the power play on Monday. Maryland trailed, 2-0, and tallied back-to-back third-period goals thanks to Erik Stroze and newcomer Justin Gusso.

However, Michael Leva played the role of hero for Apple Core. The five-foot-six forward netted the game-winning goal with less than :30 remaining in regulation – talk about clutch, right? The goal marked Leva’s first game-winner on the year, and forward also factored in on all three goals after he earned assists on Michael Carducci and Colin Callanan's tallies earlier in the contest.

Let’s not forget that Apple Core netminder Jackson Bernard posted an impressive showing in net. Bernard recorded 42 saves and collected his third win for the 2020-21 campaign.

Fast-forward to the rematch, and it was Gusso's four-point performance (two goals, two assists) that truly paved the way for Maryland. Combined with a 49-save effort from Oliver Quinn, Maryland earned a much-needed victory to snap their losing streak.

Heading over to the City of Brotherly Love, the Philadelphia Little Flyers are one of the EHL’s hottest teams entering the new week. The Little Flyers extended their winning-streak to four games after Philadelphia shutout the Protec Jr Ducks, 5-0 on Monday.

Little Flyers goaltender Jakub Kubik earned his first shutout for the season and turned away all 33 shots that he faced.

On the offensive side of the puck, Philadelphia’s Scott MeGraw and Gavin Fritch led the way after both recorded multi-point outings (1g-1a). Keep in mind that McGraw’s tally was shorthanded and on a breakaway.

The loss marked the first occasion this season that the Jr. Ducks were shutout, and the team has dropped its last two contests. The two foes met again Tuesday, with Protec earning some quick revenge.

After Brody Selman and Tyler Ebeling put the Ducks up 2-0 at the end of 20 minutes, Dakota Meyer took over the show. The 2000-born native of Alpena, MI was nearly perfect while stopping 47 of the 48 shots he faced, earning his first victory of the season.


Eastern Hockey League Premier

Transitioning to the EHLP, the Valley Jr Warriors and Railers Jr Hockey Club were the busiest squads over the last frame. The teams skated against each other in two contests while Valley also faced-off with the Boston Jr. Rangers.

Yes, Valley won the November 20th matchup with the Railers, but it was Rory White and the Railers who took the next two meetings, this past Saturday and Sunday. White was also named the league’s top performer at the forward position after he recorded four points overall vs. Valley in the week (2g-2a). The Railers defeated Valley by scores of 9-4 and 7-2. The Railers also enter the new week ranked second for the Central Division with a 7-5-0 record.

Keep An Eye On

The Seahawks and Avalanche have busy schedules, while the Jr. Warriors are also set to skate in key matchups. The Seahawks have games against Boston and Valley (2) – and perhaps there’s an exciting and dramatic finish on the horizon for one of those matchups.

In the EHLP, the Little Flyers face-off vs. the Renegades and 87’s, which should also make for intriguing outcomes. Additionally, the Jr. Rangers and Walpole are set to square up – two rival organization where bragging rights are always on the line.

See you at the rink…


Kyle McKenna covers the EHL for HNIB and can be followed on Twitter @KMcKenna_EHL

Kyle McKenna Bio

Kyle McKenna spent four seasons working in various communications roles at the professional hockey level from 2015-2019. McKenna served as the New Jersey Devils Communications Assistant for the 2015-16 season and Community Hockey Assistant and Lightning High School Hockey League Beat Writer from 2016-2018 for the Tampa Bay Lightning. Additionally, the New Jersey native worked at the 2018 World Junior Championship at Buffalo in as a Media Relations Assistant and was also the Communications Assistant for the ECHL’s Adirondack Thunder in 2018-19. Since graduating Monmouth University with a bachelor’s degree in communications (2015), the former Junior Hockey player also covered the NHL for various blogs in freelance roles. McKenna’s familiarity with the EHL dates to last season (2019-20) when he was an organization’s communications manager, while creating written and digital content on a daily basis.

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