Posts on ‘December 3rd, 2008’

According to a press release by EPHL received just minutes ago, several players from both the Danbury Mad Hatters and Brooklyn Aces will be fined and/or suspended, following an almost team-wide brawl during their contest on Saturday.

However, no players have been directly named as of yet and will not be released until an appeals process is completed.

The game was a rough one from start to finish, but things soon fell apart, as the third period alone produced eight fighting majors [with Jesse Felten, B.J. Kuper, C.J. Tozzo and Chad Wilcox dropping the gloves for the Aces] and two game misconducts.

Things got so heated during the scuffle that Aces coach Chris Firriolo and Danbury bench boss Dave MacIsaac even became embroiled in a heated argument, with both leaning over their respective benches to make sure they were hearing each other correctly.

You normally wouldn’t think a player that has eight points in nine games is slumping offensively, but Aces head coach Chris Firriolo felt something was going on with his speedy second line winger Jesse Felten.

Nevertheless, in spite of his recent struggles, [which had him going scoreless over his past two games] after Mike Thomson, C.J. Tozzo and James Brannigan all came up empty-handed in the shootout last Saturday against Danbury, Firriolo looked down his bench and figured Felten was due.

Scoring the game-winning goal in the shootout to give the Aces their sixth consecutive victory soon after, the move obviously paid off.

Coming through in the clutch, Firriolo sees the moment as a turning point for the winger, who will be counted on as the season progresses.