Five Observations, Five Answers, As Ice Flyers Hit the Road With Strong Start
By Bill Vilona
Iceflyers.com Correspondent
Five games into the season, the Ice Flyers are off to their best start in eight years.
Their 4-1 record – tied for second place in the league — is the most points attained since the Ice Flyers started 5-0 in 2017. That season was still fresh on the heels of the Ice Flyers winning three SPHL titles in four seasons. It was also the year that former defenseman Jeremy Gates transitioned from his playing career and is now behind the bench in his first season as Ice Flyers head coach.
Gates and Justin Stevens, the team’s assistant coach and director of hockey operations, have guided a team with a majority of fresh faces into a pair of overtime shootout wins against Macon, a road win at Birmingham and another home win against the Bulls.
“I’m happy about being 4-1,” said Gates in an overall assessment. “The journey of the season is starting and there are still a lot of things that we need to get better at, in order to really become a force and championship style team.
“We need to get better at closing teams out, generating more power plays, limiting mistakes that put us down 5 on 3… just little parts of the game… along with capitalizing on scoring chances and putting teams away when we impose our will on them.”
This weekend is the first time the Ice Flyers won’t have a home game since the season started. They traveled Thursday to Knoxville, Tennessee for back-to-back games on Friday-Saturday against the Knoxville Ice Bears (3-2) in a set that provides another gauge.
Prior to the road trip, here’s a five-on-five with Gates with various topics.
Biggest standout element?
“The guys’ buy-in,” Gates said. “They get along well. It’s a good group of men. Whatever Justin and I have thrown at them, they have been eager to learn and the culture and standard of that buy-in is everything. From our leadership group to first-year guys who are learning during games and their first exposure to pro hockey.”
Rookie goaltender Rico DiMatteo has faced 159 shots, the most in the league and is 3-1 as starter. His 149 saves are the most in the league. Ty Taylor won his only start in the game against Birmingham.
“Overall, very happy with our goaltending. It’s a huge thing in hockey,” Gates said. “There is an old saying in the NHL that if you want to look at a great coach, look at that team’s goaltending. They can make a coach look really good. But with that, the awesome thing about Rico is when he gave up those (6) goals in Huntsville, it was not his fault.
“We exposed middle of the ice and some really quality chances for Huntsville, who is a really dangerous team. After that game, I said don’t worry about it Rico, it’s all good. He said, yeah, but I still felt like I could have gotten two of those (goals) and for him to even say that just shows what kind of poise and attitude he has toward goaltending and right now he’s hot. He’s going to go again Friday and we’ll keep rolling.”
On the offensive side, center Lucas Jirousek is the team’s top scorer with three goals, two assists. He played five games last season when signed by then-interim coach Rod Aldoff to end the season.
“In talking with Rod about the roster when season ended, he was a player who took off in the last couple games last year,” Gates said. “And really started getting speed under him, then transferring that to this year. He’s a true leader. He’ll fight if he has to. He’ll go to the net, he does little things well.
He kills penalties, he’s been on the power play, he wins faceoffs, but it’s just his love for hockey is what drives him. And he’s finding success because the best professionals are people who are the same every day and who you can depend on. And he’s been very dependable and true pro.”
Specialty teams play. Ice Flyers are 1-for-9 on power play chances. They have allowed just two goals on 16 penalty kills.
“Our penalty kill has been great,” Gates said. “We’ve given up two goals and they both have been 5 on 3 situations. That’s shooting ourselves in our own foot. Our PK overall has been great. Justin has done an unbelievable job pre-scouting and taking a deep dive into that. On the power play side, we’ve only had just two power play opportunities in the last three games. That’s frustrating.”
“We tell our guys we have to do more to create power plays and that comes with moving your feet in corners, checking with your feet, really trying to force a team to take a penalty. But to have just two power plays in the past three games is unheard of in hockey. You can blame anyone you want, but we’re looking at this in a mirror and we’re going to move forward with it.”
Overall, the Ice Flyers have won four games allowing just two goals or less, which is indicative of defensive play.
“It is something we have harped on,” Gates said. “If we want to be a really good hockey team, you have to care about the d-zone. We want to make sure we’re tough to play in the d-zone and it’s not just the defensemen, it’s all five guys on the ice plus the goalie that defend.
“The biggest thing is talk (on ice), stick to detail and protecting the net. Teams will get shots, but if we can limit second chance opportunities and keep their shots to the outside, we believe in our goaltending and the guys protecting the front of the net to grab the puck and go. The guys have been working hard on it, asking questions and that’s great and shows the commitment level to our guys.”
