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87s Weekend Recap and Look Ahead

By AD, 09/15/17, 1:45PM EDT

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87’s start the season 2-0 and prepare for first road game

 

            The New Jersey 87’s prepare for their first road game this Saturday after coming off their first two wins in team history last weekend.

            Opening their season at the Middletown Sports Complex, the 87’s defeated the Philadelphia Revolution 6-3 on Saturday Sept. 9 and followed up with a dramatic 5-4 victory over the New Jersey Renegades the next day.

            Head coach Adam Houli said he was happy to see the team start out on the right foot and earn four points in the standings.

            “It’s the culmination of everything coming together and then in your first game in the league to pick up two points, it was really exciting,” Houli said.

On Saturday, the Revolution struck first on a goal from Isiah Maine at 12:50 of the first period, but the 87’s would go on to score four unanswered goals.

Jack Lane scored the first goal in team history at 16:30 of the first, as Kyle DePalma entered the zone on the right side and slipped a pass to the middle towards Lane, who shot it from the top of the circle and beat the goaltender low stick side.

The following day against the Renegades, the 87’s found themselves down 3-0 early in the second period. Michael Termine and Christian McCue scored to close the gap, but Alec Dugan’s goal for the Renegades made the score 4-2 at the second intermission.

“You could sense on the bench, guys weren’t nervous. We knew we were carrying the play and it was only a matter of time before we got those first two goals,” Houli said of his team when trailing early in the game.

Austin Bell kept the ball rolling for the 87’s with a goal 5:24 into the third period. After that, it was all Josh Rosenbaum, who scored both the tying and winning goal.

Down 4-3 and shorthanded, Rosenbaum blocked a shot at the blue line off a defensive zone faceoff. The puck bounced into the neutral zone and Rosenbaum was off on a breakaway, shooting it high-glove side to even the score at four.

            “I just tried to get in front of the shot and I got lucky with the bounce,” Rosenbaum said “I just took it and ran with it, took the shot and thankfully it went in.”

            With just over two minutes remaining in the third, Rosenbaum won the faceoff and tried to pass it across the crease to Christian McCue, but it banked off a defender’s skate and went into the net, giving the 87’s a 5-4 lead. They held on for the final 2:03 of the period to start the season 2-0.

            Goaltender Jake Lakatos started both games and stopped 18 of 21 shots on Saturday while making 19 saves on 23 shots in Sunday’s game. He said that the second win was a good way of getting recognition as a new team in the EHL Premier Division.

            “It was a good thing to battle back in our second game of the year. We showed that we’re a third period team and it’s definitely a statement to the league,” Lakatos said.

            The 87’s will have their first game on the road tomorrow as they face the Central Penn Panthers at 12:15 p.m. Houli said the game will serve as a good barometer to see how the team plays on the road.

            “It’s our first road matchup, so we’ll see how our guys handle things like being on the bus for a long road trip and staying crisp for the game,” he said. “We got better from game one to game two and we hope to keep improving, especially as we play on the road.”

            For more updates on the team, follow us on Twitter, @NJ87sEHL. The 12:15 game on Saturday will also be available on to stream on hockeytv.com.