The New Jersey ‘87’s defeated the visiting Philadelphia Jr. Flyers 3 – 0 yesterday in Eastern Hockey League action. It was the Jr. Flyers third consecutive loss, leaving them eight points behind the division leading ‘87’s.

At 7:22 into the first period, Jr. Flyers forward Jonathan Gabriel was called for interference to give the ‘87’s the man advantage. Slightly over a minute later Daniels Leja scored the eventual game winning goal. After a Jr. Flyers defender attempted to wrap the puck around the far side boards, it was intercepted by Leja in the corner. Leja sent it back to the top of the point to Trevor Cear, who sent the puck over to Leja on his right and Leja took a one-timer that found its way through a screen and past Jr. Flyer goalie Aron Hansson to make it 1 – 0 ‘87’s.

The ‘87’s would double their lead just 3:12 into the second period. With the play slightly outside the Jr. Flyers zone, Cameron Satkowski picked up the loose puck and passed it up to a breaking Brad Heuer along the far side boards. As Heuer skated towards the faceoff dot, he took a wrister that went bar down for his third goal of the year to make it 2 – 0.

The ‘87’s closed out the scoring with Leja’s second goal of the game at 8:22 of the third period. Justin Vickers brought the puck up along the far side boards and pass it to Joe Guercio at center ice. Guercio immediately send a return pass to Vickers who entered the zone on a two-on-one with Leja. Vickers sent a pass through the slot to Leja who one-timed it past Hansson to make it 3 – 0.

The Jr. Flyers did have a few opportunities to put the puck in the net but weren’t able to convert.

Hansson stopped 27 of 30 shots while Ian Griff turned aside all twelve shots he faced. Click here for the box score.

The Jr. Flyers next game will be played on Wednesday as they travel to IceWorks to take on the Little Flyers.