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87's gear up for the 2018-19 season

By Anthony Di Paolo, 09/08/18, 11:00AM EDT

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The 87's prepare for its second season as an organization, and will now have an EHL team in the mix

Hockey season is back as the New Jersey 87's will begin the 2018-19 campaign with a home-and-home against the Philadelphia Jr. Flyers this weekend.

In its inaugural season in the EHL Premier Division, the 87's finished second in the South Conference with an impressive 33-9-2 record, before falling to the Philadelphia Revolution in the first round of the playoffs. This year, the organization will add an EHL team to the mix while still having one in the Premier Division.

Head coach Adam Houli will lead both teams with assistant coach and co-owner Matt Kiernan, and assistant coach Justin Friedman. 

"It never stops, it's 24 hours even with one team. Having two teams, I'd say is added pleasure; we get to talk hockey more than we did last year," Houli said. "It's been fun to see how both teams come together, the culture that we've been able to establish very early, and the fun part of having guys being able to go up and down. That's what the players are here for; development, and that's what the EHL is about, and certainly what USA hockey is about."

The EHL team will feature ten players from last year's Premier team, including Jack Lane, Kyle DePalma, Trevor Cear and Sean Carver among others. The Premier team will also have a few returning familiar faces such as Griffin Dublois, Pierce Wickenden and Max Meisenbacher. 

Dublois spoke about being a veteran on the Premier team and having a new set of players come in for the 2018-19 season.

"It's good to see, some of the guys look up to the guys who have been on the team for a little while like me and Pierce. It's good to have some leadership on the team and have the rookies look up to you a little bit," he said.

Saturday begins a home-and-home against the Jr. Flyers, a team that quickly turned into a rival for the 87's. Both teams won two of the four games against each other and battled for the number one seed in the South Conference into the final week of the season. Both 87's wins went into overtime, showing that every match between them is bound to be a close one.

"We had a good series with them throughout the year, but this year again we expect them to be good, and we want to compete right from the start," Houli said of the Jr. Flyers. "Opening up against a team that went to the Frozen Final is something we're excited about to show what we can do right from day one."

The first end of the home-and-home, and first puck drop of the season will begin today at 1 p.m. in Ice Quad Rinks. Tomorrow both teams will finish the back-to-back at Middletown Sports Complex with a game time of 3:10 p.m. 

You can follow the 87's on twitter, @NJ87sEHL for live updates, and can also watch all regular season games on hockeytv.com.