Coming off of a 7-2 win against Hudson Valley on Wednesday night, the Brooklyn Aces take on the Danbury Mad Hatters tonight at the Danbury Ice Arena fully prepared to keep their five-game winning streak alive.
With all three lines firing on all cylinders and even spot shifters like Ian McLoughlin and captain Chad Wilcox playing their best hockey all season, Brooklyn’s offense alone is enough to skate the daylights out of any team that shares the ice with them.
Unlike the Aces however, Danbury has struggled offensively this season and have only two players averaging over a point a game, compared to Brooklyn’s 11. That wasn’t originally supposed to be the case though, as Danbury possessed former NHLer Billy Tibbetts, who was not only projected to lead the team and league offensively, but was going to serve as a constant reminder to the youngsters as a player that knew what it took to get to higher levels.
According to an article in The Danbury News-Times however, the 34-year-old was suspended for an unspecified violation of team rules on 11-20 after just three games and left the team on his own accord soon after. This simply put, just put a damper on the Mad Hatter’s season, forcing them to quickly find a new identity, this time forged on grit and team play, rather than offensive superiority.
With captain Mike Payne [who handily defeated former Ace Jerry Cardinale in a scrap a week ago at Aviator], Hank Carisio, Mykul Haun and Obi Aduba, it’s obvious that the Mad Hatters have the grit to compliment their offensive players like Igor Karlov and Dan Hickman, but can they put it together against the Aces? The last time these two teams played, Danbury could not beat Aces goaltender Eddie Neville [who looks to get the start, especially considering the flip-flopping him and Miro Recicar have gone in net for most of the season] and went 1 for 11 on the powerplay. If they want to change their fortunes this time around, playing well on special teams is a good start.
However, if players the likes of Tony Resendes, B.J. Kuper and Mike Thomson can continue to play the way they played on Wednesday and the rest of the team still maintains the killer instinct they’ve had all season, Brooklyn will not have a problem producing offensively against either of Danbury’s goaltenders, Derek MacIntyre [4.28 GAA, 2-2 .871 SP] or Jeff Hill [4.55 GAA, 0-2, .836 SP].
Notes-
In addition to having the leagues top three scoring forwards, the Aces also possess the league’s four of the top six offensive defensemen in Doug Hoffman, Andrew Scampoli, Nick Grove and Rob Miller.
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