Rave Making Smooth Transition to VHLM

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One could make the case that the first third of Phillip Rave's first VHLM season has gone better than anyone, himself included, could ever have expected.

The San Diego Marlins are off to a 19-3-1 start and are battling it out with the Mississauga Hounds (20-4-0) for first place in the VHLM. Rave, who only joined the team in training camp, has flourished out of the gate. Through 23 games, he has 11 goals, 25 points, 108 shots, sports a +17 rating that ranks just outside the VHLM's top-10, and is the fifth-best face-off man in the league at 58.7%. It's also interesting to note that Rave has played significant minutes on the penalty kill for the Marlins, getting a chance to develop his defensive game that was initially considered quite raw. The Marlins sport an 85.7% PK success rate, so he has adapted to the role quite well.

"You want to make plays, to help your team win games and fortunately I guess I've been able to do that a little faster than I would've expected," said Rave. "We've got a lot of talented players and we've been finding ways to win. Aanarsi (Reingaard) has been great to play with, it seems like we've meshed well together on our line. I'm just trying to do the little things right and then you hope you get rewarded from there."

The Marlins have only three regulation losses this season, two of which came at the hands of the Hounds, so it was big for them to get their first win over Mississauga this year when the two teams met their last time out. They picked up a 5-2 win despite a 36-22 deficit in shots, owing a lot to stellar netminding from Olober Syko. The Marlins have now won 10 of their last 11 and will hope to keep riding that high as they take on Ottawa and Halifax coming up.