Posts on ‘January 25th, 2009’

Coming into this afternoon’s game against the Danbury Mad Hatters, the Brooklyn Aces were 18-0 when going into the third period with a lead.

For 57 minutes and 58 seconds, that streak looked like it would continue, but behind a pair of late goals by Alex Redmond and Erik Kent, the gritty Danbury Mad Hatters skated to a hard fought 5-4 shootout win.

“They worked hard,” said Aces forward Eric Frank, who scored twice in the game. “But no one on this team wants to lose to them. We can’t make excuses. I think they just wanted it more in the end. We took it to them for 58 minutes and then we made mistakes. They’re a good team and they took advantage.”

Jesse Felten opened up the scoring at 1:52 of the first, giving Brooklyn the early lead. Eric Frank later scored on a juicy rebound after a Felten shot from in between the circles at 7:26 to make it a two-goal game. Frank tallied again at 9:57 after a gorgeous cross-ice pass from Kyle McCullough, giving the Aces a 3-0 lead after less than 10 minutes of play.

With veterans Chad Wilcox, Kyle McCullough and Nick Grove on the shelf and Mike Christensen out for personal reasons, Aces head coach Chris Firriolo wasn’t exactly thrilled to play three games in three nights this weekend, especially with two being against a team as tough as the Danbury Mad Hatters.

As a matter of fact, he sees it as a real challenge for his team.

“This is going to be a tough weekend for us,” he said after the Aces defeated New Jersey on Friday. “It’s going to be rough.”

However, it appears that Firriolo’s ability as a general manager has paid dividends for Brooklyn once again, as the trio signed by the team on Friday, forwards Derek Kern, Eddie Chlanda and defenseman Chris Robinson have all been factors.

Newcomer Chris Robinson played his heart out in his pro debut against New Jersey on Friday, so it makes sense that fellow newbie Eddie Chlanda, combined with the surging C.J. Tozzo both had a goal and an assist in a 5-2 win over the Danbury Mad Hatters on Saturday night.

Danbury defenseman Dan Hickman led off the scoring at 1:19 of the first, scoring his tenth goal of the season. Chlanda scored his first goal of the season just 3:49 later and a B.J. Kuper powerplay tally at 15:28 gave Brooklyn their first lead of the night. 28 seconds later, a Jesse Felten Marker put the Aces up 3-1.

After a scoreless second period, the Mad Hatters got right back into the game after an Erik Kent goal, his 14th of the season, making it a one-goal game. Scoring just 18 seconds in, Danbury had almost a whole period to get back in the game, but never did. An Eric Frank shorthanded goal at 9:45 made it a two-goal game once again at 4-2.