Late Push by Danbury Erases Frank’s Two Goal Effort in 5-4 Shootout Loss

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.

“It feels good to bury the puck,” said Frank. “It took me some time, but I feel I’m getting better. I just have to keep building on this.”

The Mad Hatters got back in the game quickly after Drew Madeiros’ rebound marker at 10:18. Alex Redmond lit the lamp for Danbury with traffic in front at 14:23 to make it a one-goal game going into the second.

Even though the next period ended with the score still deadlocked at 3-2, both teams picked up their physical play. The Aces’ Chris Robinson and Madeiros were the main aggressors, looking like bumper cars at Coney Island, slamming several players into the boards and keeping up the game’s frenetic pace.

“We tried to keep things simple,” said Robinson of his play and the performance of his parter Gabe Yeung. “We were just banging bodies out there. It’s been a long weekend and we felt that’s what we needed to do out there.”

The Aces extended their lead again in the third, after McCullough scored on a deflection on a shot from that point by Ian McLoughlin that was already tipped once by C.J. Tozzo, making it a 4-2 game. After that, the game continued it’s seesaw-like pace, but Recicar was solid again in net. That was until Redmond tallied again at 17:12 on a wrister with traffic in front, making it one-goal game. Just 46 seconds later, Erik scored for Danbury, tying the game at 4-4 and sending the game into overtime.

After a scoreless OT period, the Mad Hatters got the win on a Hank Carisio shootout marker, as Jesse Felten [who nailed the post in his attempt], Chris Holmes and Tozzo were unable to get the equalizer.

With key players the likes of McCullough, Nick Grove and Chad Wilcox all injured or playing hurt and Mike Christensen out of lineup this weekend, the Aces knew this stretch of games were going to be difficult. Nevertheless, they managed to nab five of out of a possible six points.

That doesn’t mean they were thrilled at coughing up a two-goal lead against their most heated rival though.

“This is a game we should have never have lost,” said Firriolo. “We’ve been having problems finishing teams off as of late and it’s a problem that is going to hurt us down the stretch if we can’t fix it.”

Notes-

The Aces leading scorer, McCullough, returned to the lineup after missing Saturday night’s game with a lower body injury.

According to Firriolo, the team has released forward Josh Coyle.

“He wasn’t the player we were looking for right now, “ he said. “We felt the need to go in another direction.”

Recent addition Derek Kern wasn’t in the lineup either, but is expected to play during the team’s following stretch of games next week.

Recicar made 35 saves on 39 shots in his first loss of the season. However, in spite of the loss, he has yet to lose a game in regulation this season.

The game’s attendance was 1,011.

Video- The shootout.

Photos by Patrick Hickey Jr.

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