Posts Tagged ‘Mad Hatters’

The heated rivalry between the Danbury Mad Hatters and Brooklyn Aces will reach its climax on Friday when the two teams face-off today at Aviator.

Forget the fact that the Hatters were eliminated from post-season play after New Jersey defeated the Bears in overtime last night. [EDIT 11:09- Danbury will be eliminated with a loss tonight or a New Jersey win on Saturday. My apologies. With some of these games canceled, it's become a rough to know how many games are actually left in the season.]

Something much bigger is at stake here.

Pride.

Always a heated contest, Brooklyn will nevertheless look to continue to fine tune their non-aggressive forecheck and play smart puck pursuit hockey. If they can, Danbury will have no problem rubbing shoulders, which should make for an excellent hockey game from start to finish.

With their last game of the season against the New Jersey Rockhoppers on Saturday, the Aces will also use this game to see what line combinations they’ll end up using during the post-season.

Tonight’s game between the Brooklyn Aces and the Danbury Mad Hatters has the potential to be an extremely volatile one.

With the addition of enforcer Joe Pelle, the Aces will have the toughness they’ve lacked since former captain Chad Wilcox’s exodus. With Dan Carney and Mike Christensen back from a one-game stint with Elmira of the ECHL as well, the Aces will be fortified on both the forward lines and on defense.

Nevertheless, they’ll still have to be on top of their game, as the Mad Hatters are fighting for their playoff lives, currently five points behind the New Jersey Rockhoppers with only 10 games left to play.

Danbury head coach Dan MacIsaac has also voiced his displeasure with the league as of late, furious over the fact that recently-acquired Zach Flynn wasn’t able to play in the team’s last game against New Jersey.

The last time the Brooklyn Aces faced off with the Danbury Mad Hatters, the Aces skated away with a 1-0 win on the back of a 41-save effort of their goaltender, Eddie Neville. It was a game where Aces head coach Chris Firriolo was happy with the fact that his team come out with a victory, but upset that his team couldn’t come up with more offense.

This time around however, Firriolo shouldn’t have that problem.

Having Tony Resendes back in the lineup for the first time since Dec. 18 was a huge shot in the arm and it paid quick dividends, as the feisty forward scored the game-winning goal in overtime last night.

Offensive defenseman Andrew Scampoli, who arrived from Holland last night too late to play, will also be in the lineup tonight and will give the Aces’ defense a totally different look. When he originally left the team in November, Scampoli was tied for the league lead in points by a defenseman with eight and considering that alone, he should also provide the Aces offense and powerplay with a huge spark.

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.

Injuries are one thing you don’t want to be dealing with when you play the Danbury Mad Hatters.

Already without steady blue liner Rob Miller and speedy forward Tony Resendes, the Aces may be without veteran D-man Nick Grove and captain Chad Wilcox for tonight’s game.

It’s a rough situation and a situation Aces head coach Chris Firriolo isn’t happy about.

“The gang is banged up,” he said after last night’s 6-1 over the Rockhoppers. “I don’t want to think about it until tomorrow. It’s going to be tough.”

On a positive note, despite those injuries to their defense, Firriolo is thrilled with the play of Mike Thomson and Ian McLoughlin, two forwards who have gone to the blue line and stepped up over the past 10 games.

“I think they’re on their way to becoming two of the best defensemen in the league,” he said last night. “I really believe that. They move the puck extremely well and look good on the powerplay. If you ask me, aside from Miro Recicar, they were probably the MVPs of tonight’s game.”

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.

Over the past week, the Brooklyn Aces have proved they can play just as gritty as the Danbury Mad Hatters, despite being out-sized and out-manned.

This afternoon, they did it again, but it wasn’t pretty.

Both teams fought hard all game long, combining for 44 penalty minutes, but it was the Aces who ended up prevailing in a 3-1 win, thanks in part to a solid defensive effort, quality goaltending and of course, timely offense.

“Today, we were very consistent,” said Aces head coach Chris Firriolo. “We battled through a lot last night and showed a lot of character and to do what we did today was very impressive. We’re starting to gel and play better defense.”

Miro Recicar made his first appearance for Brooklyn since Dec. 6, after a stint with the Elmira Jackals of the ECHL and dealing with an injured ankle afterwards. Shaky at the start, Recicar gave up an Igor Karlov tally at 4:59 that put Danbury ahead 1-0.

For those who missed the Brooklyn Aces’ last game on December 20, you may have missed a big time moment in the team’s season.

Already without Tony Resendes and Rob Miller, the Aces were forced to skate with four defensemen, with forward Mike Thomson getting double shifted at both positions, but were still able to fight off a New Jersey Rockhoppers team that seems to get better every time it comes to Aviator.

That, my friends, means something.

However, the Aces are still shorthanded and things may get worse before they get better. Out for nearly a period on Saturday, Aces defenseman Nick Grove, who has been extremely steady on both ends of the ice this season, looked extremely uncomfortable on the ice the rest of the game, grimacing with every stride. If the steady Grove is indeed out of the lineup, the Aces will not only need Thomson to play defense the entire game against Danbury, they may need an emergency call up at forward.

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. ”

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.