Posts Tagged ‘Kuper’

For the third night in a row this week, the Brooklyn Aces hit the ice at the Aviator Arena and for the third night in a row, they came out victorious.

Fueled by two-goal nights by Josh Coyle, Ian McLaughlin and Eric Frank, the Aces stormed past the Danbury Mad Hatters 8-5.

“Coyle is a really smart player,” said McCullough. “He made some intelligent plays out there tonight.”

Without captain Chad Wilcox in the lineup, who injured his knee after getting checked by New Jersey’s Rich Jondo during the team’s last game, Brooklyn knew they’d have to score early and then establish themselves physically.

While they more than held their own in the physicality department, Danbury got on the board first less than a minute into the game on an Eric Kent marker. The Aces then tied the score at 4:56 on a Coyle wrister with traffic in front. Coyle soon extended the lead with his second goal of the night at 10:20. A factor again offensively, Coyle assisted on a Kyle McCullough goal at 12:33 that made it a two-goal game. With 32.1 seconds remaining in the first, Danbury got a goal from Stephen Schofield in traffic to cut the lead to 3-2.

After defeating the lowly Hudson Valley Bears 9-3 in their last game, the Brooklyn Aces knew things would be a bit tougher last night against a much better New Jersey Rockhoppers team.

Making a statement, the Aces never trailed against the second place Rockhoppers and got a hat trick from Jesse Felten and a 36 save night from Miro Recicar, defeating New Jersey 6-1.

“I feel really great out there,” said Recicar. “My teammates supported me and allowed me to see the puck well. I’m happy with what we did tonight.”

The first period was a seesaw battle, with both teams scoring a goal apiece. Felten opened the scoring at 6:51 however and gave the Aces the early 1-0 lead. After some sloppy passing in the neutral zone, the Aces gave the Rockhoppers a two on one opportunity and Anthony Becker made the most of it, scoring his fifth goal of the season at 16:04 and tying the score at 1-1.

As part of their “We will bring home a winner” promotion last night at Aviator Arena, the Brooklyn Aces guaranteed their fans a win.

While the team as a whole played stellar, racking up 63 shots on goal, Mike Thomson and Jesse Felten delivered like Joe Namath and Mark Messier, as Thomson’s first professional hat trick and a pair of goals by Felten paved the way for an impressive 9-3 Brooklyn win.

“I’ve had a couple of chances to get a hat trick this season, but it just didn’t come,” said Thomson. “I feels great now that I’ve done it.”

The Aces got on the scoreboard first after a pretty deflection in front by Thomson on a shot from the point by Gabe Yeung at 9:06. The lead didn’t last for long however, as a tally by Tommy Westfall at 14:51 tied the score at 1-1.

When the Brooklyn Aces and Danbury Mad Hatters square off, you can bet your bottom dollar it’s going to be a physical affair.

This time around, it’ll be extra physical.

In the prior three games with Danbury, Brooklyn, despite winning all three, were roughed up physically and were dealing with injuries, which made it even tougher for them in battle in the corners and in front of the net. However, with newly acquired 6′5 D-man Gabe Yeung in the lineup for the first time against Danbury, the Aces just got a whole lot tougher. That’s not to say that Yeung is a talentless goon either. It’s actually quite the opposite, as he’s the stay at home D-man the team was in desperate need of with various injuries to their blueline over the past few weeks. With Yeung’s presence in the neutral zone and the rambunctious play of Chad Wilcox, the days of Brooklyn being pushed around by Danbury may be over.

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.

Combining for 15 goals and 78 shots on goal, one look at the box score may have had the most dedicated hockey fan believing that the legendary offenses of the New York Islanders and Edmonton Oilers of the ’80s were back in town for one night.

It was the Brooklyn Aces and Hudson Valley Bears that competed last night at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center however, and it was the Aces that came out victorious 10-5 despite a three-goal period by the Bears in the third that made things interesting.

Defenseman Ian McLoughlin started the scoring for Brooklyn at 6:54 of the first, but just 1:11 later, former Ace Scott Estey tallied to tie the score. The Aces weren’t satisfied with a tie score though and over the next 5:10, they lit the lamp five times on goals by Chris Holmes, B.J. Kuper, Kyle McCullough, Eric Frank and newbie Joey Grasso, giving them an impressive 6-1 lead.

Before last night’s game with New Jersey, Rockhoppers goaltender Nick Niedert was the only goaltender to beat the Brooklyn Aces this season.

Today, he’s the only one to do so, twice.

Making 40 saves, Niedert proved why he was called up to ECHL a few weeks ago and then some, standing on his head and leading New Jersey to a 5-4 overtime win over the Brooklyn Aces.

After the team’s whopping 11-3 win over Hudson Valley on Friday, various members of the organization were concerned how the team was going to respond against a much better team in the Rockhoppers. Also, without James Brannigan [team suspension] and Rob Miller [injured reserve] the Aces couldn’t afford to fall behind early. Goals by Anthony Becker and Matt Tyree however forced Brooklyn to play catch up. Luckily for the Aces, speedster Tony Resendes, who filled in for Brannigan on the top line, scored two goals in the second, which cut the lead to 3-2 after a Tom Boudreau goal at 8:17 before his second tally at 11:20.

Tonight’s contest between the Brooklyn Aces [9-1] and the Hudson Valley Bears [1-8] pitted the best and worst of the EPHL against one another in what was expected to be a lopsided affair.

The cliché “The numbers never lie” couldn’t have been any truer in this one.

Powered by a seven-goal first period, Brooklyn and their top-flight offense dismantled a flustered Hudson Valley team en route to a stellar 11-3 win.

“We got up  on them quick and we didn’t want to embarrass them,” said Aces head coach Chris Firriolo. “It was a rough night for them and we wanted to play with some class and make sure we respected them and the game.”

Things started quiet enough for Brooklyn, but after a goal by leading scorer James Brannigan at 4:00, his 17th of the season, the offense was ignited and followed with two more tallies in the next 1:51 by C.J. Tozzo [9] and Chris Holmes [5], giving them a 3-0 lead.

Powered by a four-goal third period, the Brooklyn Aces proved once again that they weren’t going to take the second place New Jersey Rockhoppers for granted, stretching their winning streak to seven games in a 6-3 win.

Like most of the season, Brooklyn received contributions from all three lines, as three point nights from Kyle McCullough [three assists] and James Brannigan [one goal, two assists] and two-point nights from B.J. Kuper, C.J. Tozzo and Mike Thomson fueled a come from behind win.

Brooklyn also had six other players in the game including, defensemen Nick Grove, Doug Hoffman and Rob Miller, register points in the game.

However, things didn’t start exactly the way the Aces would have liked after a Tom Boudreau goal 11:13 into the first on the powerplay gave New Jersey a 1-0 lead.

According to a press release by EPHL received just minutes ago, several players from both the Danbury Mad Hatters and Brooklyn Aces will be fined and/or suspended, following an almost team-wide brawl during their contest on Saturday.

However, no players have been directly named as of yet and will not be released until an appeals process is completed.

The game was a rough one from start to finish, but things soon fell apart, as the third period alone produced eight fighting majors [with Jesse Felten, B.J. Kuper, C.J. Tozzo and Chad Wilcox dropping the gloves for the Aces] and two game misconducts.

Things got so heated during the scuffle that Aces coach Chris Firriolo and Danbury bench boss Dave MacIsaac even became embroiled in a heated argument, with both leaning over their respective benches to make sure they were hearing each other correctly.