Posts on ‘January 17th, 2009’

Injuries are one thing you don’t want to be dealing with when you play the Danbury Mad Hatters.

Already without steady blue liner Rob Miller and speedy forward Tony Resendes, the Aces may be without veteran D-man Nick Grove and captain Chad Wilcox for tonight’s game.

It’s a rough situation and a situation Aces head coach Chris Firriolo isn’t happy about.

“The gang is banged up,” he said after last night’s 6-1 over the Rockhoppers. “I don’t want to think about it until tomorrow. It’s going to be tough.”

On a positive note, despite those injuries to their defense, Firriolo is thrilled with the play of Mike Thomson and Ian McLoughlin, two forwards who have gone to the blue line and stepped up over the past 10 games.

“I think they’re on their way to becoming two of the best defensemen in the league,” he said last night. “I really believe that. They move the puck extremely well and look good on the powerplay. If you ask me, aside from Miro Recicar, they were probably the MVPs of tonight’s game.”

After defeating the lowly Hudson Valley Bears 9-3 in their last game, the Brooklyn Aces knew things would be a bit tougher last night against a much better New Jersey Rockhoppers team.

Making a statement, the Aces never trailed against the second place Rockhoppers and got a hat trick from Jesse Felten and a 36 save night from Miro Recicar, defeating New Jersey 6-1.

“I feel really great out there,” said Recicar. “My teammates supported me and allowed me to see the puck well. I’m happy with what we did tonight.”

The first period was a seesaw battle, with both teams scoring a goal apiece. Felten opened the scoring at 6:51 however and gave the Aces the early 1-0 lead. After some sloppy passing in the neutral zone, the Aces gave the Rockhoppers a two on one opportunity and Anthony Becker made the most of it, scoring his fifth goal of the season at 16:04 and tying the score at 1-1.