The Essex 73's are leading early in their second round playoff series against the Dresden Kings after a 5-1 Game 1 win Tuesday night.
Essex forward Tyler Scott was praised for his penalty killing by the coaching staff, but he credits a strong work ethic from the team for the win.
"We fought really hard, we won a lot of battles and we got a lot of shots on net," says Scott. "I mean if we keep doing that for the rest of the series, I mean they have good goaltenders but they can't stop every shot we put on net."
Dresden Head Coach Rob Vanderydt feels his team didn't test 73's netminder Noah Hedrick enough despite throwing 30 shots his way.
"To me there weren't too many big saves. We had one shot and then we weren't attacking the net or nothing, so basically he had one save and that's all he had to do," says Vanderydt. "Definitely the special teams was the big difference in the game."
The 73's had two goals from Phil Janikowski and a goal and two helpers from Daniel Slipchuk. Justin Melo had the lone goal for the Kings.