Posts under ‘Aces Memories’

When I think about it, this season was easily my favorite of the past five seasons covering professional hockey because not only did I get to blog about the New York Islanders and cover the Aces, I was able to bring some of my Journalism Students to games and teach them the ropes of the field, something I would have wished for when I was first starting out.

The first time I was able to do this, I figured I was going to have some fun with it, so I set up an interview between Aces then captain and EPHL penalty minute leader Chad Wilcox and one of my best students, Joey Curto. Again, dealing with personalities all the time at the college and at the rink, I like to think that I’m a good judge of character and after the fist time I spoke with him, I thought Wilcox, despite his menacing stare that could tear a hole in the universe, was a straight up, no nonsense guy that just wanted to play the game and be a good teammate. Curto, who was in his second class with me after taking a basic English course the semester before was and still is an animated and bright kid that isn’t scared to be himself. I figured it would be a perfect match, in spite of Curto’s mixed feelings that Wilcox was going to kill him during the interview.

As far as I know, as of today, Bobby and James Brannigan are the only brothers to play in the EPHL.

They also share the distinction of being the only brothers to play on the same team.

A far cry from the Sutter’s or the Staal’s however, these two still have college hockey experience under their belts and have both made it to the pros, albeit in two totally different ways.

In spite of being six years younger than his brother, James was a member of a Colorado College team that reached the frozen four. Even before this season, he had a cup of coffee in the ECHL with the Augusta Lynx and the Columbus Inferno. This past season, he was also easily the best pure goal scorer in the league, scoring 22 goals in just 17 games, before spending the rest of the season with the Utah Grizzlies.

Here’s a new segment I’ll be implementing on the site to give you, the fans, some more insight on a handful of the players on the team that there isn’t much information on.

Enjoy.

Derek Kern spent just 24 days with the Brooklyn Aces this season, but in that time, he worked his tail off on every shift, proving that after four years removed from professional hockey [his last stint in the pros was in 2005, where he was a teammate of former Aces captain Dan Rohanna with the UHL's Kansas City Outlaws, where he scored seven goals and 18 points in 71 games.], he could still perform at a high level.

Playing on virtually every line on the team in his seven-game stint with the team, the 5′8, 165-pound Kern scored five points and provided toughness, despite his diminutive size.