After a dismal season last year, coach Vince Williams and the Titans wanted to get off to a much better start this year. They did just that. After jumping out to a 2-0 lead thanks to power play goals from Steve Schultz and Jason Akeson. Trenton certainly controlled the physical play most of the game, with coach Williams highlighting defenseman Eric Baier’s play, along with Ian Slater. Appearing in his first regular season game in North America, goaltender Niko Hovinen performed admirably. Admitting afterwards that he was still adjusting to the speed of the game, the smaller rinks, and the angles here, Hovinen showed why the Flyers signed him from Finland. While he is going to have to improve his rebound control and continue to work on the aspects of the game he mentioned,

Hovinen played well and kept his team in the game when they were stuck in their defensive zone.

The Titans are going to need to improve on the turnovers in their own zone to continue their winning ways. Also, they are going to need to play a more complete 60 minutes to win. Often times tonight, the Titans went into lulls and allowed Greenville to take the play to them—resulting in being outshot 32-19 for the game. Losing Kory Nagy to a leg laceration early in the game hurt the Titans, but they were able to withstand being down to just 9 forwards for most of the game.

The player of the game? As I predicted in my pre-game post, Jason Akeson. Akeson posted 1 goal and 1 assist and was flying all over the ice. Akeson played the point on the power play and did so very well. Akeson needs to continue to work hard at back-checking and his defensive zone work, but he knows to return to the AHL and eventually the NHL that hard work will have to be put in. Akeson mentioned being disappointed and a little bit of a shock, but he had a determined look on his face in the post-game interview tonight that showed he will be a name that Flyers fans are going to hear for a long time.

Titans won 3-1

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