Posts Tagged ‘Macintyre’

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.

The last time the Brooklyn Aces and Danbury Mad Hatters faced off on Nov. 29, both head coaches were fined after an almost bench-clearing brawl during a 3-2 Brooklyn win.

This time around, things were a bit calmer, but were rough and tumble to say the very least. Producing a combined 55 penalty minutes, Danbury and Brooklyn are quickly creating quite a hatred for one another.

However, the Mad Hatters were the ones that laughed last this time around, lighting the lamp five times in a tough 5-4 Brooklyn loss.

“Danbury came out and they really wanted it,” said Aces Head Coach Chris Firriolo. “Our injuries are hurting us right now. We battled back and I’m happy that we did, but we made a lot of mistakes defensively and they hurt us. They were desperate for a win and they accomplished what they wanted tonight. ”

The way the Brooklyn Aces offense has played this season, it’s easy to forget that they are human beings and not the super heroes that have been consistently scoring a half dozen goals a night.

Nevertheless, even on an “off” night offensively, the Aces still got a more than quality performance from Eddie Neville, who made 34 saves in a 3-2 Aces shootout victory over the Danbury Mad Hatters.

In spite of Neville’s performance however, Danbury goaltender Derek MacIntyre was the real star of the game, stopping 54 of 56 shots, effectively keeping his team above water against the leagues top offense.

Brooklyn jumped out to an early 1-0 lead off a Rob Miller powerplay goal, but Danbury leading scorer Igor Karlov answered back 5:02 later with a powerplay marker of his own, tying the score at 1-1. The BMT line of James Brannigan, Kyle McCollaugh and C.J. Tozzo came through in the second, as Brannigan notched his 15th goal of the season, giving Brooklyn a 2-1 lead.

Giving up seven goals in the first period over their last three games, the Brooklyn Aces couldn’t afford to make the same mistakes against the Danbury Mad Hatters on Saturday Night at Aviator Arena.

Scoring four goals in the first period, the kings of the EPHL coasted to a 7-1 win in their most complete effort of the young 2008-2009 season.

Stressing the importance of a 60-minute effort after the team’s come from behind victory on Friday, Aces head coach Chris Firriolo was all smiles after the game.

“I think this was a great turn around from the past few games,” said Firriolo. “We came out hard and we did it early. I thought that was key.”

The Aces got an early lead after Chris Holmes smoked a vicious slapshot past Mad Hatters goaltender Derek MacIntyre at 3:14. At 11:47, James Brannigan too proved that he could slap it with the best of them, sending one past MacIntyre and giving Brooklyn a 2-0 lead.