Posts under ‘Aces Notebook’

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.

While the Brooklyn Aces will gladly take the points that came along with their last three wins over the Hudson Valley Bears, they know full well that their next two games on Friday and Saturday against the Danbury Mad Hatters and New Jersey Rockhoppers will be a much better measuring stick of their future success.

With Rob Miller, Tony Resendes, Andrew Scampoli and Mike Christensen back in the lineup over the past few games, Brooklyn has looked much more like the dominant team they were earlier in the season. However, they’ll have to prove just how much better they’ve gotten against much tougher competition and will need to step up their physical games as well if they want to continue their winning ways.

Aces head coach Chris Firriolo isn’t like many head coaches in professional hockey.

Despite his team’s 8-4 win over Hudson Valley on Sunday, the enigmatic coach believed his team was lacking something in the physicality department.

It would be a minor concern for most coaches, but Firriolo sees it as an important element that could make or break his team’s season.

“We need toughness,” said Firriolo after the game. “We need some hard-nosed guys.”

He’s even proposed making drastic changes to his team in order to make them tougher on the ice.

“We’re going to try and make a few trades to add some toughness,” he said. “I liked what I saw from a few players on Hudson Valley today, so it’s something we have to look into.”

While the Aces have held on to the top spot in the EPHL all season, despite a plethora of injuries, many believe the team hasn’t had the same snare since captain Chad Wilcox went down with a knee injury in January.

The Brooklyn Aces have never truly been down on their luck this season, but losing three games in a row for the first time this weekend seemed to have taken it’s toll on them.

In spite of that though, the team had plenty of jam in yesterday’s 1-0 win against the Danbury Mad Hatters and are now looking to put their recent stretch of bad luck behind them.

“I think we did what we had to do tonight,” said Aces goaltender Eddie Neville after the game. “Everyone worked as a team and did what we have to do out there in order to be successful. We have plenty of guys that can do different things and it was important since we didn’t score much. I don’t think we have anything to be concerned about.”

Fighting injuries to two-way standout Mike Christensen, veteran defensemen Dan Carney and Rob Miller and enforcer Chad Wilcox [who is also serving a 30-day suspension], it would be all too easy for Brooklyn to relinquish their spot atop the EPHL.

Losing two of their last three games, the Brooklyn Aces have hit their biggest low of the season.

Battling injuries to key players the likes of Joe Lyle, Nick Grove, Rob Miller and Tony Resendes and not to mention the half dozen other players like Kyle McCullough and Chris Holmes that have been playing injured over the past few weeks, the team is in desperate need of a few days off.

Despite their record this season and a 16-point lead over the Rockhoppers, the Aces can’t afford to finish the season on one leg. Aces head coach Chris Firriolo knows that better than anyone and feels that once the team can get healthy, they’ll regain the consistency that got them to where they are this season.

“Once we get a few guys back, things are going to be very different,” Firriolo said. “Things are really tough and we’re battling. I’m really proud of them for that, but once we get healthy again, I don’t think we’re going to be having some of the problems we’re having right now.”

Over the course of the season, the Brooklyn Aces have parted ways with several tough customers.

After the first handful of games this season, the team traded then-Captain Dan Rohanna to the Hudson Valley Bears in a parity move to help the struggling team keep pace with the rest of the league. The same day, the team let agitator and Bensonhurst-native Jerry Cardinale go on waivers, who despite his relatively small size at 5′9, 165 pounds, had no problem dropping the gloves with anyone in the EPHL.

Now, after losing Chad Wilcox to injury and maybe even suspension, for what may be the rest of the season, the Aces must find a way to toughen up and fast.

It’s safe to say that the discussion of whether or not this team can win and win big without sniper James Brannigan in the lineup is over.

The answer is a profound yes on both parts.

After defeating the Bears 10-5 on Sunday, Brooklyn got key contributions from a slew of players including B.J. Kuper, Jesse Felten, Mike Christensen, Eric Frank and new addition Gabe Yeung, all of whom had at least had three points.

While Christensen has proven himself as an offensive force over the past ten games, Felten, Kuper and Frank have come around offensively over the past handful of games as well, making themselves viable options on the ice and giving the Aces the offensive depth needed to win hockey games by wide margins. Garnering player of the week honors last week for scoring three goals and adding three helpers, Felten is beginning to prove that he can in fact be the point a game player he and Aces head coach Chris Firriolo envisioned he’d be before the season began.

A few weeks ago, the Aces defense featured five defensemen, Dan Rohanna, Andrew Scampoli, Nick Grove, Doug Hoffman and Rob Miller, that could all perform extremely well on both ends of the ice.

Isn’t it funny how a few weeks can change things?

After trading then captain Rohanna to Hudson Valley and watching Scampoli leave the team in order to play in Holland last week, the Aces, while still having the sturdy and dependable Hoffman, Grove and Miller on the roster, will have to ask for more out of guys like Ian McLoughlin and Mike Richards, two players that haven’t been getting a ton of ice-time up to this point in the season.

Just coming back from injured reserve a few days ago after being placed there on Nov. 21st with an undisclosed injury, Richards won’t have the luxury of getting time to acclimate to his surroundings.