While both the Brooklyn Aces and New Jersey Rockhoppers have gained tremendous reputations around the league for their offensive ability, it is their goaltending that got them to the playoffs this season.
In Eddie Neville and Miro Recicar, the Aces have the best tandem in net in the EPHL. However, of the two, Neville has been tested more against the better teams in the league, with Recicar getting the majority of the team’s games against the Hudson Valley Bears and also an unusual amount of offensive support through the majority of the season to boot.
If Neville’s value was in question or unknown going into last week, the team’s play over the last three games of the season proved just how important he is to the success of the team. With Neville out the last week of the season with a neck injury, the Brooklyn Aces struggled, as Recicar was not on top of his game. Falling behind in every game during that span, Brooklyn was not the same team it was when Neville was between the pipes and it showed.
With the New Jersey Rockhoppers possessing EPHL MVP and iron man Nick Niedert between the pipes, the Aces will need whoever is in net to be on top of their game. After the team lost their regular season finale on Saturday, Aces head coach Chris Firriolo told the press that Neville will be back in net by Thursday and will be the team’s goaltender for the playoffs. If Neville can steal the show and outclass his buddy Niedert, this will be an amazing series to watch, as both team’s possess high powered offenses and will be forced to get extra physical to create space.
The fists already began to fly on Saturday when the game was tight and both goaltenders had control of the game. Despite the fact that the rivalry between these two teams pales in comparison to the hatred between the Aces and Danbury Mad Hatters, the game got pretty hot-tempered. With a championship on the line, the almost friendly atmosphere that most of the games between these two teams have had this season will be thrown out the window. Even though the Aces don’t have a real enforcer with Joe Pelle traded to the Hudson Valley Bears at the deadline, they have a few players in Chris Robinson and Bill Horton that have no problem dropping the gloves if they have to.
Because of that, this can be an extremely entertaining series.
Site News:
I appeared on the Hockey Night in Brooklyn program on WKRB 90.3 FM last night to talk about the Aces and the playoff series.
You can listen to that here:
http://media.switchpod.com//users/patrickhickeyjr1/HNIB32509.mp3
You can also check out my other appearances on the show here.
By Patrick Hickey Jr.
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on Jul 6th, 2009 at 9:11 am
I am new here in this site. But i will be visiting this site
time and again. this article is so interesting. One of the
most interesting analysis on network effect. Great job
buddy.