The Green Mountain Glades took the long bus trip to Philadelphia this past weekend for a two game series against the EJHLs newest team.
It was a very busy week leading up to the weekend series as the Glades made two trades since last weekends sweep of the CD Selects.
The Glades sent forward Pat George to the Lincoln Stars of the USHL for forward Andrew OLeary, a New Hampshire native who played for Shattuck St. Marys the previous two seasons. The Glades also sent Captain and two year Glade Zach Vit to the New Jersey Hitmen for Nick Geraci. Geraci, a 3 year veteran of the EJHL score 59 pts for the Hitmen last year and also recorded 30 pts combined in the EJHL playoffs and the National tournament. OLeary is scheduled to make his first appearance as a Glade this coming weekend against the Bay State Breakers but Geraci made his debut a memorable one.
In the weekend's first game, the Glades came out firing scoring just 33 seconds into the game when Connor Anthoine and Jordan Ciccerello assisted a Matt Esposito goal. Nick Geraci than scored his first goal a Glade on the power play when he received a pass from Jordan Ciccerello and buried a beautiful shot in the top corner to make it 2-0 just 5:27 secs into the game. Then Connor Anthoine extended the lead to 3 when he buried a Mike Szuma pass in the back of the net.
Just 25 seconds later, Nathan Morrill made it 4-0 on a nice 2 on 1 feed from Connor Hale. Esposito struck again on a Philadelphia turnover in the slot and walked in and made a great move to finish off the first period scoring.
The second period started and Philly struck first 2:27 seconds into the period on a power play goal, but the Glades answered quickly with Connor Hale finally able to slip the puck past the Philly net minder off of a scrum in front of the net where all three Glades forwards had an opportunity at it.
Philly came right back scoring just 58 seconds later to make the game 6-2. Then Nick Geraci made a highlight reel assist to Connor Anthoine who made no mistake one timing it for his second goal of the game.
The two teams traded power play goals in the third with, newly named captain, Mark Grinhaus netting his first of the year on a high and hard shot from the point. Adam Janecyk earned his 3rd straight win stopping 23 of 26 shots in the 8-3 win.
In the weekend's second contest The Glades were able to, once again, get on the board first off of an offensive zone faceoff. Matt Esposito won straight back to Mike Szuma, Szuma took a stride and wristed a puck through the traffic in front and it found its way in. Then Ian Reopel got his fifth of the season off of a strange play in front.
The Philly defense coughed it up and the goalie tried to tie it up but Reopel was able to poke it through before the Philly defense and goalie could get a handle on it.
Connor Anthoine then notched his 3rd of the weekend off assists from his line mates Esposito and Geraci. The Revolution then found life in the second period as they notched their third power play goal of the weekend cutting the lead to 3-1. They then came out in the third and struck first making it a one goal game. This is where the Glades took over, Jordan Ciccerello one timed a pass from behind the net from Nick Geraci to make it 4-2. Then Geraci had a highlight effort for himself where he danced around two Philly defenders and faked going behind the net and was able to with one hand tuck it back around the Philly goalie on the short side. Anthoine capped off a 4 goal weekend and the scoring once again with assists going to Esposito and Geraci for the 6-2 victory and the sweep on the road.
We made some moves this week and they seem to have paid off so far, Coach Chris Line said. Whenever you trade your Captain you wonder how guys will respond and fortunately they responded very positively. With the addition of both Geraci a proven player in the league and OLeary, a big, strong and gritty forward we are pretty happy with our lineup right now.
The Glades will return home this coming weekend when they face the Southern Divisions top team, Bay State Breakers.
The Breakers will be looking for some revenge as the Glades took the first game from them back in September when they beat them 2-1 at the Boston Junior Bruins Shootout. The weekends first game takes place Saturday November 7th at Cairns Arena. The puck drops at 5:10pm. The Glades hope to see you there.
-Courtesy of Green Mountain Glades
