Empire Team Shines in Charlotte!

The Patriots began the Charlotte Showcase Friday evening against the Florida Eels. Falling behind 1-0 in the first half, the Pats would notch three power-play goals from Micah Dabao, Miles Miller, and Jeffrey Egan. Robert Stone added two assists and Micah Dabao, Noah Rubin, and Jack Strycharz would each add one assist. T.J. Hollen had a fantastic outing, stopping 32 of 34 shots, for the Patriots first win of the season.

In the first of two contests on Saturday the Patriots would jump out to an early 2-0 lead off of two highlight reel goals from Micah Dabao, en route to a 7-4 win over the Palm Beach Hawks. Miles Miller would add a power-play goal to end the first half 3-0. The Hawks would open the scoring in the second until sniper defenseman Matt Reynolds would unload a 60 foot cannon past the Palm Beach goaltender. Miles Miller, Andrew Gorny would add on to the 4-1 lead with goals of their own, and Tyler Nolan would add a short-handed empty net goal to seal the deal. Tyler Nolan added three assists, Micah Dabao, Matt Reynolds, Nick Grose, Jack Strycharz, Robert Stone, Jeffrey Egan, and Reme Paine would also add assists. Rookie goaltender Derek Guzik was perfect in the last 10 minutes to hold off the Hawks desperate offense. 

In the Patriots only loss on the season, they would enter the locker room with a 1-1 tie with the Tampa Bay Bolts thanks to Michael Santiago’s quick shot. Tampa would then notch three more goals and an empty netter to seal the deal. Judd Parker added a goal in the second off of a turnover, in a come-back effort. Shane Barber and Noah Rubin would both add one assist. 

To cap off the weekend the Patriots would fight their way back from a two goal deficit in a hard hitting battle against SpaceCoast. Down 3-4 with 2 minutes remaining, Miles Miller finds Judd Parker for his second goal of the game to tie it up at 4 all. After a scoreless overtime the Patriots called on Tyler Nolan, Judd Parker, Miles Miller, and goaltender T.J. Hollen to come up big in the teams first shootout. With the Patriots electing to shoot first, Tyler Nolan took the ice. Nolan would use his speed to fly in and rip a shot glove side to put the Pats up 1-0. The SpaceCoast shooter tried to deke Hollen and go five-hole only to be denied, Pats still up 1-0. Judd Parker would go in and completely deke the opposing tender out of his net, and just miss off his backhand. The second SpaceCoast shooter also tried to deke and go five-hole, and also got denied by the flawless positioning of Hollen. Miles Miller was the third shooter for the Patriots. With a chance to win the game, Miles took the puck with speed and made a quick shot that was denied by the opposing goaltender. With the game on the line, SpaceCoasts’ shooter came in on Hollen and snapped a quick low shot. Hollen slid to his right, dropped to a butter-fly and and made a huge save to cap off the Patriots come-back victory. Judd Parker and Jeffrey Egan would both have two goal performances. Steven Frankel, Riley Wanat, Judd Parker, and Miles Miller would all add assists in the win. T.J. Hollen went on to stop 31 of 35 shots in his stellar performance and second win on the season. 

The Patriots will have a much needed weekend off before traveling to Atlanta to face a tough division rival.