Posts Tagged ‘Nick Niedert’

If the Brooklyn Aces have had a kryptonite this season, it’s been been New Jersey Rockhoppers goaltender Nick Niedert.

Making 39 saves on the night, the gritty netminder guided his team to a 5-3 win over the Brooklyn Aces.

Things didn’t start off the Rockhoppers’ way however, as a Mike Thomson marker at 6:49 of the first gave Brooklyn an early 1-0 lead. New Jersey then bounced right back, getting tallies from Tom Boudreau and Chris Ferazzoli at 10:22 and 15:56, giving the Rockhoppers a 2-1 lead going into the second.

New Jersey extended the lead on a Kyle Bozoian score that made it a 3-1 game. Aces defenseman Doug Hoffman scored on the powerplay at 10:51, cutting the lead to 3-2 with only one period of play.

Nevertheless, the Rockhoppers weren’t done offensively, as Anthony Becker’s 16th goal of the season make it 4-2. Brooklyn still has some fight in them and Thomson ended up lighting the lamp for the 18th time this year, making it a one-goal game with 2:20 left to play.

Tonight, the two top teams in the EPHL, the Brooklyn Aces [8-1] and the New Jersey Rockhoppers [5-3] will square off in what looks to be another interesting contest.

If any team has the overall talent to catch the Aces in first place, the Rockhoppers definitely have the pieces in place. Coming off a pair of wins against the Hudson Valley Bears, it seems like the New Jersey offense is starting to come into it’s own. While they don’t have three lines that can produce as dominantly as the Aces, they have a handful of players in, Kyle Bozoian, the reigning EPHL player of the week, Chris Ferazzoli, Drew Sanders and Tom Boudreau, all who will do whatever it takes to get themselves on the scoresheet on any given night. Add in a quality goaltender like Nick Niedert [5-3], who seems to have bounced back after a pair of shaky starts and it’s easy to see that the Aces cannot afford to take the Rockhoppers for granted.

Through five games this season, the Aces have a 4-1 record and have scored a league-leading 28 goals, making every goalie in the EPHL look like they were made of swiss cheese in the process.

Well, every goalie except Nick Niedert that is.

The last time the Rockhoppers were in town on November 8th, the Aces took 62 shots on the New Jersey goaltender and lost 3-2 after the team’s powerplay ended up going 2 for 13.

Since then, Brooklyn has lit the lamp 14 times in their past two games and have come full circle as a team. After winning 7-6 over the Hudson Valley Bears last Friday, despite playing their worst defensively all year, the Aces defeated Danbury 7-1 in their best overall performance of the young season.

With Aces goaltender Eddie Neville and the Aces defense core playing their best hockey of the season as well, Brooklyn head coach Chris Firriolo saw the game as a step in the right direction.

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.