Posts Tagged ‘Mike Christensen’

Behind a hat trick from Mike Christensen, the Brooklyn Aces defeated the Hudson Valley Bears 8-1 at Aviator on Tuesday night.

Sporting the beginnings of what look to become future playoff beards, the Aces ran the table on a Hudson Valley team that despite a hard luck season, never gave up.

Now with only two games remaining, due to the ever-growing possibility that the last game of the season with the Bears will be canceled, the Aces are warming up for the playoffs.

“We’re looking towards a championship now,” said Aces defenseman Doug Hoffman. “We got the W and we’re moving on.”

Hudson Valley got the scoring started at 15:09 of the first on a Kevin Straub goal that put the Aces down early. Brooklyn fired right back however, getting goals from C.J. Tozzo and Hoffman 20 seconds apart at 17:09, giving them a 2-1 lead.

Despite missing 12 games this season due to injury, Brooklyn Aces center Mike Christensen is still ranked fourth in the EPHL with 25 goals. Often regarded as one of the top two-way players in the league, playing in every game situation, Christensen has also proved that there’s a lot more to his game than his offensive ability. Over the 12 games he was out of the lineup, the Aces learned that the hard way and were unable to find a player as versatile as Christensen to fill the void.

Now healthy and back in the lineup, Christensen has wasted no time picking up where he left off, scoring two goals in his first game back on Thursday against the Hudson Valley Bears.

In this interview done before his first game last Thursday, Christensen talks about his road back to the ice and what he wants to accomplish the rest of the season.

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.

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.

Leading the EPHL with 25 assists, Kyle McCollaugh has proved on countless occasions this season what a talented passer he is. Last night against the Hudson Valley Bears, McCollaugh lit the lamp twice in a 7-4 Brooklyn Aces win, proving he isn’t too bad a shooter either.

The Aces started off quickly in the first, getting goals from McCollaugh, James Brannigan and the still white-hot Mike Christensen, giving them a 3-0 lead after one period of play.

Hudson Valley was far from finished for the night however. A goal by defenseman Chris Clark cut the Brooklyn lead to 3-1 at 5:33. The Aces bounced right back after recent addition Bobby Brannigan, the brother of the Aces and EPHL’s leading scorer, netted his first professional goal just 1:36 later to make it a three-goal game again. Tallies by Dan Malloy and Mark Lebenns [who some may remember was a training camp invitee of the Aces this season] cut the Brooklyn lead to 4-3.

Both sides of the EPHL standings will be represented tonight when the Brooklyn Aces take on the Hudson Valley Bears at the Ice time Sports Complex in Newburgh.

Outscoring their opponents 98-49 this season, the Aces have gotten amazing offensive production from all three lines for most of the season. However, in spite of the balanced production, the Aces top line of James Brannigan, Kyle McCullough and C.J. Tozzo, aptly dubbed the “BMT” line, has been the team’s bread and butter offensively the majority of the time. That hasn’t been the case recently though, as center Mike Christensen has been on a tear, recording 11 points in his last four games. Already averaging a point a game and playing exceptional two-way hockey all season before his recent hot streak, Christensen has now put himself on center stage and has quickly become one of the league’s best all-around players.

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.

Mike Christensen has been absolutely on fire as of late, nailing down three four-point games over the past two weeks. Last night in Danbury, the slick two-way center was up to the same antics again,dealing out four assists and powering a 4-2 road win over the Mad Hatters on Friday that continues to prove that the Brooklyn Aces are the team to beat in the EPHL.

Continuing to play with only three natural defensemen in the lineup and Ian McLoughlin and Mike Thomson being double-shifted at forward and defense, the Aces continue to outperform their opponents. Last night, the Aces were forced to come back from an early deficit, after Danbury sniper Igor Karlov scored at 1:20 to give the Hatters an early 1-0 lead.

Luckily for Brooklyn, Jesse Felten scored with just 1:34 remaining in the period to tie the score going into the second. A three- goal period in the second for the Aces on tallies by Chris Holmes, James Brannigan and a powerplay marker by Nick Grove gave Brooklyn a 4-1 lead going into the final period.