Photo Credit: @paulspicsnj

The EHL Team continued their season series against the New Jersey 87s last week. The Premier Team travelled to face the New Jersey Renegades.

EHL vs 87s (Wed)

The Huntsmen opened the scoring when David Cook led the rush and dished the puck to Ryan Arendes who scored his 11th goal of the year. Shortly after the midway point of the period, Devin England jammed the puck on the side of the net and through the goaltender to put the Huntsmen up 2-0. In the 2nd period, it was all New Jersey. The 87s responded with three goals to take the lead after 40 minutes. The Huntsmen tied the game when Tremblay sent a beautiful lead pass to David Cook, scoring his 5th of the year. Once again, New Jersey responded with three goals and won the game 6-3.

EHL at 87s (Fri)

The Huntsmen had two power plays but overall, it was a scoreless 1st period. The floodgates opened in the 2nd. After the 87s took a 1-0 lead the Huntsmen had another power play opportunity. This time they made it count as Arendes quickly skated into the zone and ripped a shot to tie the game. Just like the game before, New Jersey had a strong response. The 87s scored four goals, two on the power play, to end the period with a 5-1 lead. Damon Warren scored the only goal of the 3rd period as the Huntsmen lost 5-2.

Premier at Renegades (Sat)

 The 1st period moved quickly, and Will Saunders scored the only goal of the period to give the Huntsmen the lead. Early in the 2nd period the Renegades tied the game. New Jersey took the lead with a goal from the slot. Evan Mostoller responded :16 later ripping a shot top shelf from the faceoff circle tying the game 2-2. The Huntsmen took a penalty, and the Renegades scored on the power play to regain the lead 3-2. This time Cooper Walling answered right back for Pennsylvania on the rush to tie the game. The four goals all happened in about two and a half minutes in a wild 2nd period. With six minutes left in regulation, the Renegades took the lead. The Huntsmen once again had an answer as Enzo Giuliani scored less than three minutes later to tie the game 4-4. In overtime Giuliani scored his second goal of the game to give the Huntsmen a 5-4 victory and Pirrone made 17 saves in net.

Up Next

            EHL

The Huntsmen have a full week of practice ahead with no games during the week. They are back on home ice and face, you guessed it, the New Jersey 87s. This will be the fourth game in a row against New Jersey, and the Huntsmen are still looking for their first win head-to-head. Throw in a pair of losses to the New Jersey Bears before the 87s matchups and the Huntsmen have now lost 5 in a row, and have been outscored 27-12. After this upcoming game against the 87s, the Huntsmen won’t see them until February, so Pennsylvania definitely wants to end the losing streak overall and to the 87s.

Coach Progen spoke about the struggles defensively and what the team needs to do to get back in the win column. “We are too inconsistent,” says Progen. “We can play good hockey for a little bit, and we do a lot of good things. We get out to a lead but then we start getting away from our game plan and what makes us successful. It’s starting to kill us and add up in the wrong way. We need to improve in our defensive zone. We need to defend better five on five, and we need to be better with the puck below our goal line. We are not going to win many games giving up as many goals as we have been lately.”

            Premier

This weekend the Huntsmen return home against the Philadelphia Little Flyers. The Little Flyers are on a six-game losing streak and are 1-12 this season. Recently, the Little Flyers are coming off an 8-2 loss to the Renegades. Oddly enough, their win was against the Huntsmen 9-3 back in October. The Huntsmen are looking to even the season series and remain in the win column.

Schedule

EHL vs New Jersey 87s   Sunday      1:15pm

Premier vs  Little Flyers  Saturday     7:45pm

By: Joe Sindoni

Staff Writer

Play by Play Announcer