Coming off a huge win against the Danbury Mad Hatters last Sunday, the Brooklyn Aces will try and revive their struggling offense against the cellar-dwelling Hudson Valley Bears tonight.
Despite the fact that the Aces have dominated the Bears all season, this time around however, Hudson Valley will have a markedly different look.
For starters, once former Aces forward Josh Coyle was released a few weeks ago by Brooklyn, Hudson Valley quickly snatched him up. The end result has been beneficial for both parties, as Coyle has eight points in his first four games.
The team also signed forward Justin Bodine, former ECHLer Lynn Beedle and defensemen Ken Francis, who was Third Team All-SECHL at Marist last season and Peter Dannenhower, who spent time last season with the Valley Forge Freedom of the MAHL. While these players don’t pack the same punch as Coyle, the Aces will have to make sure they’re on their game and can defend against these new additions. Add in the solid offensive play of John Geverd [37 points in only 23 games] and Scott Estey [16 goals in 23 games] and the return of goaltender Len DiCostanzo last week and it’s possible that the Bears may be at their best tomorrow.
Playing against the white-hot New Jersey Rockhoppers last night, the Bears won’t be the fresher team, so it’s up to the Aces to jump on them early. With problems on the powerplay and producing offensively as of late, scoring only four goals over their past three games, the Aces need someone to tep up. Leading the league by a healthy margin all season, Brooklyn will have to snap out of their recent offensive funk and fast.
Even Aces coach Chris Firriolo was concerned after the team’s last win.
“We can’t finish right now,” he said. “We haven’t scored a pretty goal in a while either. We have to start bearing down more and focus.”
However, with Eddie Neville coming off of his first professional shutout last week, Brooklyn will be heavily fortified in net again. If the offense continues to fail to put up numbers, Neville or the Aces other netminder, Miro Recicar, will have to be on his game.
With Mike Christensen still out of the lineup for at least another week as well, the Aces will be missing one of the best players in the league and will have to find the right combinations and produce where it matters most, on the scoreboard.
Otherwise, this game may end up a lot closer than many may think.
Photos by Patrick Hickey Jr.
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