Aces Notebook- Can Aces Rebound in Playoffs?

Losing their last two games during the regular season, the Brooklyn Aces aren’t in the kind of shape many first place teams would like to be in headed to the post-season.

The Danbury Mad Hatters toughness proved to be a hindrance to the team on Friday, as Drew Madeiros, Obi Abuba and Erik Kent were virtually untouched in the offensive zone all night and were able to generate scoring opportunities when they needed to. Because of that, despite the fact that the Aces were the better team over the last 40 minutes of the game, Danbury’s ability to create space by being physical played a huge part in Kent’s goal that ended up clinching the game.

Against the Rockhoppers, the Aces simply weren’t able to finish on offense. Going two for six on the powerplay, the team took advantage of the mistakes New Jersey made, but away from special teams, the team was unable to generate turnovers from their forecheck and were forced to play a back and forth game with New Jersey, which is high-risk and low reward, especially considering how potent the Rockhoppers offense is.

If this continues and the Aces aren’t able to generate scoring opportunities and draw penalties, Brooklyn is going to have to dig down deep to ensure a championship against New Jersey.

However, the team’s biggest problem over the past two games came from the most unlikely of sources as Aces goaltender Miro Recicar was shaky at best, allowing several goals that ended up deflating his team’s morale and forcing them to play from behind. A more than solid first save goaltender, Recicar was even fooled by Kent’s slapper in the third period, that again, played a huge role in the team’s loss that night. The next night, Recicar failed to spot a Patrick Serpico shot that was entangled in his pads, falling into the back of the net and again, forcing his team to come from behind.

In order for the Aces to get back to their winning ways, mistakes and breakdowns such as these will have to stop. If they don’t, this series will be a tough one to watch for Brooklyn fans. If they can however get quality goaltending from Eddie Neville, who is expected back by Thursday after suffering a back and neck injury last week and can continue to produce on special teams, things will be much different.

Predicting what will eventually happen in this series however is rougher than predicting the weather in New York City lately.

Photos by Patrick Hickey Jr.

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