With the Western Division standings jam-packed, the Valencia Flyers are going to have to beat up on the teams below them in order to secure one of the four playoff spots.

The Fresno Monsters are currently running away with not only the division but with the regular season league title. The San Diego Gulls seem to have a stronghold on the second position but from that point on, things get a bit hazy.

Coming into last weekend’s games, the Flyers trailed the fourth-place Phoenix Knights by just one point and the third-place Arizona Redhawks by two.

Playing over the Thanksgiving weekend for the first time ever, the Flyers swept a home-at-home set from the Long Beach Bombers. The two wins catapult the Flyers into third place and extend their lead over the bottom two teams in the division.

On Friday night, the Flyers hosted the Bombers for the first time since October 14^th and 15^th, a series in which each team won a game.

After a scoreless opening period, where the Bombers seemed focused on shutting down the Flyers top line of Eddie Keshishian, Sam Khongmuk and Austin Ehrlich, it was actually the “stopper” line that got the home team on the board first.

Just 2:26 into the middle frame, rugged forward Greg Heimann notched his second goal of the season and first since the opening game of the season in Dallas, Texas.

Defenseman Albert Boyamyan pinched in from his point position to hold the puck in and dug it out of the corner for forward Cameron Stell. Heimann found a spot in the slot and took a centering pass from Stell, one-timing it past Long Beach goaltender Salvatore Tecci.

The rest of the period went back and forth, as Long Beach’s penalty kill, which came into the weekend 14^th out of 16 teams in the league, stymied the Flyers’ power play four times.

The Bombers were able to contain him for two periods contained but in the third, Eddie Keshishian worked his usual magic and helped put the game away for Valencia.

While short-handed, Keshishan knocked the puck off of the stuck of Roman Li at the Flyers’ blue line and broke in all-alone against Tecci, who had actually stopped him on a breakaway in the first period.

This time however, Keshishain made no mistake, sliding the puck between the legs of the 6’4” goaltender.

A little over four minutes later, the Flyers put it away for good as rookie forward Austin Ehrlich took a back-hand feed from Keshishian and slid it past Tecci for his 14^th goal of the campaign.

Rookie defenseman Lance Pennington, playing in only his third game as a Flyer after being acquired from Boulder, garnered an assist on the goal, giving him three points in three games as a Flyer.

Stephen Palmer got his first shutout of the year, stopping all 32 shots he faced.

Two days later, the Flyers traveled to Glacial Gardens in Lakewood for their second clash of the weekend with the Bombers.

Long Beach, looking to bounce back after losing three of their first four against the Flyers, came out a lot tougher and kept the game close throughout.

Kenny Kurtkan put Long Beach on the board first, just over five minutes into the opening frame, beating goaltender Donny Snediker with a wrist shot.

The Flyers would rattle off three straight goals to take the 3-1 lead, as Eddie Keshishian, Lance Pennington and Cameron Randles each collected a goal.

Long Beach would not lie down and take a beating, countering with three straight of their own to take the 4-3 lead with 13 minutes left in regulation.

Not to be outdone, the Flyers’ Sam Khongmuk continued his hot streak and knotted the game just over two minutes later, before Mr. Clutch, Austin Ehrlich took the lead back for Valencia, roofing a wrister past Tecci with a tick under four minutes remaining.

After a couple of late penalties, Long Beach had a 6-on-3 power play for nearly two full minutes but behind some timely stops by Snediker, the Flyers escaped with the huge 5-4 victory.

Both Keshishian and Khongmuk finished the game with four points and defenseman Lance Pennington had three of his own.

Snediker, got his second win of the season, turning away 35 of 39 Bombers’ chances.

The two wins are huge for the Flyers, putting them five points ahead of the last place Bombers and three ahead of fourth place Phoenix, who hold the worst win percentage in the entire division but have played the most games.

As a reward for their strong weekend, the Flyers get to travel north this weekend and take on the Fresno Monsters, who currently have the best record in the league, at 20-1-0.

The Flyers did play them tough in three games in Valencia, taking them to a shootout twice, while picking up two key points. In that series, Eddie Keshishian was tough to contain, as he has been all season. The second leading scorer in the league had six points in just four periods of hockey, before getting into a scrap and serving the subsequent one game suspension that came with it.

All games can be seen online at fasthockey.com.

The Flyers final home game before the Holiday Break is on Friday December 9^th as they welcome in the San Diego Gulls at 7:15 PM. Tickets are still available for as little as just $5!