Posts Tagged ‘Neville’

The Brooklyn Aces’ Andrew Scampoli has been hearing all season from his family that he’d make a better forward than defenseman.

Tonight, he proved them right, scoring the game-winning goal with 4:26 left in overtime, giving the Aces a 3-2 win over the New Jersey Rockhoppers in the first game of the best of three EPHL Championship Series.

“I called for it and as soon as I did, it was on my stick,” said Scampoli. “I knew if I got it off quick I had it and luckily I put it right where I wanted.”

However, while Scampoli’s heroics gave the Aces the win, goaltender Eddie Neville was the real star, making 35 saves, including 13 in the third period to keep the Aces in the game.

“Eddie was the man tonight,” said Aces head coach Chris Firriolo. “New Jersey was dynamite tonight and made him work. It was one of the top three hockey games I’ve been a part of in the 14-years I’ve been involved in this sport. Neville was phenomenal.”

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. ”

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 pre-thanksgiving battle between the Brooklyn Aces [6-1] and Hudson Valley Bears should be an intriguing contest to say the very least, as both teams seem headed in completely different directions.

Despite picking up former Aces Jerry Cardinale and Dan Rohanna [who has yet to appear in a game for the team and may be still nursing a hand injury he suffered two weeks ago in a fight with Joe Pelle. However, at this time, his current status is unknown.] last week, the Bears [1-4] were defeated 9-2 by Brooklyn in their last game on Saturday. In spite of possessing a handful of capable offensive players in Chris Seifert [4 goals & 5 assists, good for 4th in the EPHL in scoring], former Ace Scott Estey [4 goals & 4 assists good for 6th in the EPHL in scoring] Scott Horvath [1 goal & 7 assists] and Dan Malloy, the Bears have looked out of sync on the ice this season.

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.

With 1,609 fans packed inside the Aviator Arena screaming their heads off for their undefeated Brooklyn Aces, things originally looked pretty grim for the New Jersey Rockhoppers.

Beating New Jersey in their two prior meetings and scoring 12 goals through their first two regular season contests, the Aces were the heavy favorite before the game.

New Jersey goaltender Nick Niedert had other things in mind though, making 60 saves in a 3-2 Rockhoppers win.

“You got to tip your hat to the guy,” said Aces coach Chris Firriolo. “They deserved to win tonight. He was the reason why they won.”

The game started well enough for the Aceshowever, as they were aggressive on the forecheck and fired a ton of shots early on Niedert. A fight early in the period by Aces forward and Bensonhurst-native Jerry Cardinale also got the fans into the game and seemed to sway the momentum. Nevertheless, the Aces offense, which came into the game with ten players averaging a point a game, couldn’t find the back of the net.