Aces Maul Bears in Impressive 11-3 Win

Tonight’s contest between the Brooklyn Aces [9-1] and the Hudson Valley Bears [1-8] pitted the best and worst of the EPHL against one another in what was expected to be a lopsided affair.

The cliché “The numbers never lie” couldn’t have been any truer in this one.

Powered by a seven-goal first period, Brooklyn and their top-flight offense dismantled a flustered Hudson Valley team en route to a stellar 11-3 win.

“We got up  on them quick and we didn’t want to embarrass them,” said Aces head coach Chris Firriolo. “It was a rough night for them and we wanted to play with some class and make sure we respected them and the game.”

Things started quiet enough for Brooklyn, but after a goal by leading scorer James Brannigan at 4:00, his 17th of the season, the offense was ignited and followed with two more tallies in the next 1:51 by C.J. Tozzo [9] and Chris Holmes [5], giving them a 3-0 lead.

“They had a bad game,” said Holmes. “We had a good one. The score reflected it. We absolutely killed them.”

Hudson Valley then managed to get back into the game at 10:30, following a John Geverd shorthanded marker, but Mike Christensen answered back for Brooklyn just 28 seconds later, making it a 4-1 game. 29 seconds after that, Kyle McCollaugh scored, to give all three members of the team’s BMT line a goal and put the Aces up 5-1.

The Bears attempted a comeback again at 9:55 as Geverd potted his second of the night to cut the Brooklyn lead to 5-2. Tony Resendes and B.J. Kuper had other things in mind however, scoring 48 seconds apart with less than four minutes remaining, stretching the lead to 7-2.

Much like the first period, the second started timidly, until Holmes lit the lamp for the second time at 6:42, stretching the Brooklyn lead to 8-2. Despite slowing down the offensive attack the rest of the period, the Aces got another goal off a Doug Hoffman shot from the point with 2:06 remaining that made it 9-2.

“Games like this are good, but we know we have more work to do,” said Hoffman. “We’ll be facing better teams and we have to be sharper in the future. As far as me, I’ve been on a little bit of a slide lately and this felt good.”

Just when things looked like they couldn’t get much better for Brooklyn, they did, after Hoffman scored again from the point at 6:39 of the third and gave the Aces a whopping 10-2 lead. The lead continued to grow later in the third, as a Chad Wilcox tally at 7:51, that made the enforcer look more like a sniper, continued the Aces reign of terror and gave them a nine-goal lead.

With half the period remaining, the Aces quieted down the offensive attack even more, feeling they had Hudson Valley’s number by then, but defeated the cellar-dwelling Bears 11-3 after a late period goal by Joey Grasso.

With the win, the Aces are now 10-1 for the season and are currently riding an eight-game winning-streak.

Impressed at the poise and consistency of his team, Firriolo is one happy man.

“These guys are working really hard right now,” he said. “It’s a long season, but I’m very happy.”

Notes-

Aces goaltender Eddie Neville made 23 saves on 26 shots.

According to Firriolo, Aces defenseman Rob Miller may miss tomorrow’s game due to injury.

Mike Thomson was a healthy scratch.

Aces goaltender Miro Recicar is day to day with a sprained ankle.

Check out the Aces fight page to watch both scraps that occurred during the game.

Photos by Ron Hatcher.

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