The EHL Wolves travelled to Simsbury, CT over the weekend to participate in the Eastern Hockey League Christmas Showcase coming away with 3 out of 6 points.  The Wolves closed out a strong December going 4-2-1 and will return to action following break vs. the Vermont Lumberjacks January 7 at 4pm at the Wolves Waterville Valley Ice Arena.   

Philadelphia Junior Flyers 2, NE Wolves 1 (OT)

In the first game of the showcase on Friday afternoon the Wolves suffered a tough 2-1 overtime loss when Philadelphia scored from the slot 49 seconds into OT.  The Junior Flyers scored first in this one at 10:10 of the first half but Christian La Croix tipped home a Sean O’Brien shot just a minute and a half later to tie it up 1-1. The two teams battled up and down through regulation in a tight checking game before the overtime disappointment for the Wolves.   

NE WOLVES 1, Hartford Junior Wolfpack 0 (SO)

Game 2 on Saturday morning proved to be the Wolves best game of the weekend demonstrating strong checking and penalty killing to beat the 18-7 Wolfpack in the shootout. The two teams battled through regulation and overtime with neither team able to score. Eric Bogart earned the shut out stopping 26 of 26 and stopping all 3 Hartford shoot out attempts.  Clay Player scored the only shootout goal to give the Wolves the big win deking past the Hartford goalie with his nasty signature move and firing into a wide open net.  The Wolves successfully killed off 6 of 6 penalties in the game including 3 in the last 10 minutes.  

New York Bobcats 5, NE Wolves 2

In the 3rd and final game of the weekend The New York Bobcats took advantage of a tired Wolves club coming on strong over the second half of the game to take the win.  In an unusual circumstance the Bobcats only played 2 games on the weekend and hadn’t played since Friday while the Wolves played 3 in 3 days including the first one of the day Saturday morning and the last game Sunday, both of which were physical overtime games.  The Wolves came out strong in the first applying intermittent pressure before Nic Potvin would deposit a Ryan Shea rebound to give his team a 1-0 lead at 19:19.  The Bobcats converted a rebound of their own to tie it at 4:10 of the second half but the Wolves answered quickly tie it up again at 4:58 when Ryan Dunn took a Sean O’ Brien feed and slipped it past a surprised New York goaltender.  Penalty trouble reared its ugly head once again for the Wolves and although the Bobcats couldn’t solve the Wolves PK units, the defending caught up to the tired club.  The aggressive Bobcats capitalized on a Wolves defensive zone faceoff assignment mistake to take a 3-2 lead on a high slot tip of a shot from the point and the wheels fell off for the Wolves at this point. The Bobcats scored again 2 minutes later and added a late goal to account for the 5-2 final.