The Oceanside Shock open their fourth week of FPHL action with a weekend home-and-home against the Frontier Division-leading Fresno Falcons, beginning with a Friday night tilt from Sell and Arena in Fresno. The game is set for a 7:05pm PDT face-off, with the action televised on YouTube on the Fresno Falcons team channel, youtube.com/@FresnoFalcons. The two teams will travel south for a rematch the next night on Halloween at Frontwave Arena in Oceanside.
The Shock (1-4-2, 4 points) are currently in fifth place in the Frontier Division, which consists of four expansion teams (Oceanside, Fresno, Stockton Thunder and Minnesota NorthernLights) and the Topeka Scarecrows ,who are
in their second season of existence. The top three teams in the division at
season’s end will make the playoffs. In its 17th season, the Federal Prospects
Hockey League (FPHL) has 17 active franchises for the first time in league
history.
In the sense that two things can be true at once, Oceanside is both on a four-
game losing streak, and is also on the first multi-game point streak in
franchise history. Last weekend, the Shock twice had a regulation win within
their grasp against the Minnesota Northern Lights, but saw the visitors first
come back in the third period to tie the game, then win in sudden-death overtime. Friday’s loss was by a 4-3 score, and Sunday by a wild 7-6 final. The
two points gathered helped keep Oceanside with in three points of third place.
“We had chances to win both games and in a lot of ways we beat ourselves,
”
said head coach Craig Carlyle. “This whole week has been dedicated to
shoring up the defensive side of the puck and not cheating offensively.”
The Fresno Falcons (4-1, 8 points) willface the Shock a total often times this
season, four at Selland Arena in Fresno and six at Frontwave Arena in
Oceanside. The two sides squared off for the first two games in each
franchise’s respective history onOctober9and 10,with the Falcons prevailing
7-2 and 5-2. Since then, Fresno split a pair at home against the Mid-South
Monarchs, and beat Stockton last weekend 8-4. The Falcons have seven players averaging over a point a game, but are led by a trio averaging over two
points a game in captain Aaron Huffnagle (7-7=14 points), winger Austin
Albrecht (6-6=12 points) and fellow winger Houston Wilson (4-7=11 points).
Fresno forward Brandon Tootoosis is suspended for both games this
weekend due to agamemis conduct taken against Stockton.
“We knowthey are a highly skilled teamwith some guys that have a ton of pro
experience,” said center James Spaargaren. “That first weekend we played
them, that was a lot of guys'(in our room’s)first pro experience. Ina short time we’ve gained some experience of our own, and we’re ready to go this
weekend.”
