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Junior Notebook: EHL, RMJHL Regular-Season Titles Come Down The Wire

By Tom Robinson, 03/06/18, 2:30PM MST

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The Revolution won the EHL while Steamboat took the Rocky Mountain League.

The Philadelphia Revolution and Steamboat Wranglers each finished strong to win their respective league’s regular-season title.

Philadelphia finished 41-8-1 to win the EHL, while Steamboat ended 21-7-0-1 to win the Rocky Mountain Junior Hockey League.

Brian Lange piled up 13 points as the Revolution went 4-0 in their final week. Lange, who had a seven-point game Saturday, notched 13 goals and 29 assists in 33 games this season.

The Revolution won the Mid-Atlantic Division by three points over the Philadelphia Little Flyers and the overall EHL title by one point over the New Hampshire Avalanche.

Out west, Steamboat won its final three games to barely edge the Pikes Peak Miners. The Wranglers needed Joel Rothman’s overtime goal Sunday, the final day of the season, to finish one point ahead of the defending champions in the standings.

Rothman also completed a hat trick with the overtime game-winner in a 7-6 victory over the Colorado Thunderbirds.

EHL RECAP: New Hampshire finished 39-7-4 to win the EHL’s New England Division. The other division champions were the Boston Junior Rangers (38-11-1) in the Boston Division and the Connecticut RoughRiders (31-18-1) in the Central Division.

Joey Savel from the Little Flyers won the league’s scoring race with 96 points, including a league-high 65 assists in 49 games.

Devin Panzeca from the East Coast Wizards and Alex Ochterbeck from the Little Flyers each scored a league-leading 43 goals. Penzeca was second and Ochterbeck third in points.

Among goalies, New Hampshire’s Nick Sorgio had the league’s best goals-against average (1.30) and save percentage (.944). Travis Pelke from the Revolution led the league with seven shutouts.

USHL ROUNDUP: The Omaha Lancers opened March as the top team in the usahockeymagazine.com United States Hockey League Power Rankings for the first time this season, while Team USA remained in second.

Omaha moved up from third by going 9-1 in February to improve to 30-11-2-1 on the season. Zach Driscoll improved to 11-2 in goal with two shutouts since Jan. 1. He has a 1.73 GAA and .939 save percentage on the season.

Team USA’s Oliver Wahlstrom had three goals and an assist in a two-game sweep over the Green Bay Gamblers. Wahlstrom has 32 points in 19 games, an average of 1.68 per game, which is second best in the league behind only teammate Jack Hughes.

Muskegon’s Marc Del Gaizo went plus-6 over three weekend games while notching three assists Friday and then scoring goals Saturday and Sunday. With 55 points in 107 career games, Del Gaizo ranks second all-time in scoring by a Lumberjacks defenseman.

BIG WEEKEND: Goalie Gabe Vinal from the Aberdeen Wings and forward Ture Linden from the Lone Star Brahmas had big weekends in the North American Hockey League.

Vinal posted back-to-back 3-0 shutouts against the Austin Bruins, stopping 20 shots Friday and 29 Saturday.

Linden had four of his team’s 10 goals, including two game-winners, to help the Brahmas go 3-0. The first two goals — and the first game-winner — came Friday in a 3-1 win over the Kenai River Brown Bears. Linden had a goal and two assists the next night in a 5-0 win over Kenai River. He then had another game-winning goal in a 2-0 win over the South Division-leading Shreveport Mudbugs.

Mitchell Gibson made 15 saves for Lone Star Sunday, giving him eight shutouts of the season, including five against Shreveport.

COLLEGE COMMITMENTS: Two NAHL defensemen recently announced their college commitments. Lone Star’s Kyle Hallbauer is headed to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute beginning in the fall and Marcus Chorney from the Amarillo Bulls committed to play at Quinnipiac University.

Hallbauer, a 21-year-old from Howell, N.J., is in his second NAHL season.

Chorney is a 20-year-old from Hastings, Minn. An alternate captain, he has 26 points in 65 games since joining the Bulls late last season.

Both players were part of last week’s Top Prospects Tournament.

ONE-TIMERS: Defenseman Tim O’Connor from the Binghamton Junior Senators went plus-32 in nine February North American 3 Hockey League games while scoring seven goals and assisting eight others. … Christian Perry from the Colorado Rampage finished as the RMJHL’s leading goal scorer with 37.

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.

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