Neville, Christensen and Defense Come Through in 4-2 Win

With defenseman Rob Miller already out and speedster Tony Resendes now on the shelf, the Brooklyn Aces’ contest with the New Jersey Rockhoppers last night was looking to be one of the team’s first true tests this young season.

Powered by a three-goal second period, the Eddie Neville-powered Aces [28 saves] forgot about all their bumps and bruises and played one of their most complete games of the season, beating the Rockhoppers 4-2.

Their first win since Dec. 11, the Aces are back in the win column and are ready to continue their reign of dominance atop the EPHL.

“We kept battling,” said Aces head coach Chris Firriolo. “We played smart. It was a great win; we needed it. Our whole defense was great tonight and so was Neville. I thought he was our MVP.”

The first period was an action-packed affair, with both teams each registering 13 shots on goal. Both Neville and New Jersey goaltender Nick Niedert were on their games early on as well, making several solid saves. With 35.3 seconds remaining in the first however, New Jersey broke the stalemate on a Tom Boudreau goal that gave them a 1-0 lead going into the second period.

“Neville played well,” said Aces forward James Brannigan. “He watched his rebounds and gave us a chance to win. We’re all happy with the way he played.”

After failing to capitalize on several scoring chances in the first, the Aces came into the second period a rejuvenated team and got a goal from “Super” B.J. Kuper in traffic at 1:55 that tied the score. Just 54 seconds later, the Aces got the lead after Brannigan scored his league-leading 18th goal of the season on assists from linemates Kyle McCollaugh and C.J. Tozzo. Mike Christensen extended the Aces lead to 3-1 at 9:09 on a beautiful passing play with Chris Holmes in transition that put Brooklyn in the drivers seat.

“We went into the room after the first and really got chewed out by our coach,” said Kuper. “This isn’t the first time that we’ve come out flat either, so we talked about it and decided to come together and we did. We played as a team and everyone fed off each other.”

At 14:42, New Jersey got a freebie after an errant pass by Logan Bittle deflected off of Aces defenseman Doug Hoffman’s skate and past Neville that put the Rockhoppers within one. The goal did nothing to inspire either team though, as the score remained 3-2 going into the final period.

With a one-goal lead in the third Neville shined, making solid save after solid save. With just 1:23 left, Christensen potted his second goal of the night, putting the game away at 4-2.

“A lot of us felt good tonight,” said Christensen. “Everybody knew we had to have energy tonight. The defense got it done and we knew what we had to do. We knew we couldn’t lose three in a row and we came out tonight with what we lacked in our previous two.”

With the win, the Aces have also stretched their first place lead to nine points, but know that now is not the time to rest on their laurels.

“They were phenomenal,” said Firriolo. “But we have to get some rest and get ready for Danbury on Tuesday night.”

Notes-

The game started at 8:10 after a half hour delay, which was caused after a Brannigan shot in warmups hit off the cross bar and ended up breaking a pipe above the rink. The result was a lagoon on the Aces side of the ice that needed to be tended to.

“I’ve never seen anything like that before,” said Aces forward Jesse Felten. “It’s definitely a story to tell people.”

After just one game with the Aces, it appears the Tom Collingham’s tenure with the team appears to be over, as the blue-liner wasn’t in the lineup last night.

“We’ll have to see what happens,” said Firriolo. “It was more of an emergency type of thing, but we may see him again at some point this season.”

As a result, the quartet of Hoffman, Nick Grove, Mike Richards and Ian McLoughlin were double shifted throughout the game, while forward Mike Thomson chipped in on the blue line as well.

Eric Frank drew an assist on Kuper’s goal, giving him a point in his Aces debut.

Grove went down with an injury at the end of the first with an apparent groin injury and returned at the 8:00 mark of the second.

Injury update-

Aces forward Tony Resendes will be out for six to eight weeks with a third degree sprain of his MCL.

Video-

The result of Brannigan’s wrister in warmups.

Photos by Ron Hatcher and Patrick Hickey Jr.

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