BKN Aviators ~ Flatbush Faithful Get First Two Wins

From the desk of:

THE SKATES OF FLATBUSH  -  THE COOLEST GUYS IN BROOKLYN

BROOKLYN AVIATORS:  The Skates of Flatbush Finally Gain Their First Two Home-Ice Victories; But Needed to Hurt Some Feelings Along the Way.



In the first meeting between the Danville Dashers and Brooklyn Aviators, our gracious and most hospitable Flatbush Avenue Skaters allowed the visiting team from Illinois to score the opening goal midway through the first period SATURDAY night in Hangar Five.  The token offering and respectful welcome to Kings County are just some of the classy reasons why our local hockey club are The Coolest Guys in Brooklyn.  Hospitality has it's limits though.  And on Flatbush Avenue, well...the definition of that word changes a little.  But how is a team from Illinois supposed to know that?  ...Answer; - gotta learn the hard way.

Mistaking Aviators kindness for a weakness, Danville misstepped with that first period goal.  The plan was for them to idly stand by while we won the game.  And because Danville's goal didn't go over so well with the home crowd, the A's responded by dashing any hopes Danville might have had regarding their own first victory of the season, much less on our ice.



The locals responded with four first period goals.  The first one should have served as an omen for Danville.  It came on a short-handed effort by Brooklyn's Steve Koich at the 12:02 mark.  Danville should have dashed away then, before Vladimir Nikiforov put Brooklyn ahead at 17:52 with his eighth goal of the season.  Then inside the final minute of the first period, Andrew Owsiak effectively put an arrow through the Dashers' night with two more goals within twenty-one seconds of each other.




Ouch!




Danville came out fighting to start the second period however.  After Ken Trentowski's period opening goal at 2:55 put Brooklyn up 5-1, Danville's Chris Affinati decided to drop gloves with Brooklyn's Jari (Rocky) Balbotowski.  Two minutes later, the Dashers netted their second goal of the game scored by Ryan Stern to make it a 5-2 game.




It was a nice try on their part.  Any Brooklynite can appreciate the effort.  But alas, it was a mistake on their part.  And Brooklyn showed them just how much they didn't appreciate Danville's behavior in our Hangar.  For good measure and to teach the expansion team a lesson for the next time, the A's went on to score another four-pack of goals.  Between 8:01 and 16:17 of the period, Jesse Felton sandwiched a Casey Mignone goal with two net-finders of his own; - Felton's second came on a power play.  Andrew Owsiak completed a hat-trick with his goal at the 16:41 mark to make this a 9-2 affair after just forty-minutes of hockey.  Danville scored one more inconsequential goal in the third period but wound up leaving Brooklyn a wounded animal.




Sorry guys.
 



Peter Dundovich started in net for Brooklyn after Thomas Lee started Wednesday and Friday night's games.  Peter stopped 22 of 25 shots on net for his second win.

Saturday's victory over Danville was Brooklyn's second consecutive home-ice win.  After posting an 0-2-2 record playing on Flatbush ice, the Aviators finally gained their first win inside Hangar Five the night before.  The home crowd's first taste of victory this season came against our newest adversary; the Cape Cod Blue Fins.  Brooklyn did some Friday night fishing off Jamaica Bay and enjoyed their fresh catch with a 5-3 filleting-o-The-Fish.  Brooklyn's first home-ice win also evened the season series between these new enemies at two games apiece.

In only their fourth game against each other, these two teams are rewriting the FHL penalty codes with an ever growing myriad of creative and seldom-called acts of brute force, ignorance, and battery.  It's making for an entertaining renaissance of the good old fashioned Canadian-style, on-ice justice system.  You can now add a Butt-Ending Major/Game Misconduct to the arsenal of unscrupulous tactics these two teams have resorted to and employed against each other in the past.




After Friday night's opening period of civilized hockey ended in a 1-1 tie thanks to goals by Cape Cod's Steve Brown and Brooklyn's Jesse Felton, the A's got the better of the Fins during a ferocious second period mix of delinquency and thuggery, with just a pinch of Hockey for taste.




Brooklyn's Chris Ferazzoli scored at 0:35 into the period.  More than just making this a 2-1 game, his goal lit a fuse that set-off the rest of the night.  For just over a minute later, Aviator's defenseman Jarrett Rush tapped into his inner pugilist and earned a swath of penalty minutes after he picked a fight with Cape Cod's Brad Surdam.  As tossed gloves made their way back to their rightful owners, short-tempered Jarrett was charged with two minutes for Instigating, another five for the Fighting Major, and an additional ten minute Game Misconduct, for a total of seventeen penalty minutes.  That translates to one thousand and twenty seconds of Goon Time.  Now that's how you seize the moment with conviction.  No more hockey game for you.




A little under six minutes later, hostilities resumed as Brooklyn's Colin Ronayne and Cape Cod's Kevin McCreedy took swipes at each other.  The hey-makers didn't stop there.  At the 10:00 mark, Brooklyn's Anthony Iaquinto and the Cape's Luke Frey decided they'd introduce each other to their fists as well.




With about three minutes left in the second period, at least Jesse Felton still had enough composure to score his second and third goals of the game for a hat-trick.  His goal at 17:05 put Brooklyn ahead by a 3-1 score.  His third goal of the game then came on a power play at 18:53 which extended Brooklyn's lead to 4-1, and which also turned out to be the game winning goal.




In the final period, of all things, a hockey game broke out again.  The return of sportsmanship allowed Cape Cod to actually use athleticism and skill to get back in this game.  But, apparently Casey Mignone didn't get the memo and got whistled for slashing at the 7:45 mark.  The Blue Fins' Anthony Sarno scored on the ensuing power play to make this a 4-2 game.




With time running out on the Blue Fins, the decision was made to pull the goalie in favor of the extra skater.  At 19:07, that decision paid off.  Garrett Peters' goal brought the Fins to within a goal.  Continuing to gamble with that strategy in order to tie, the riskier aspect of the plan materialized and ended Cape Cod's night with a loss instead.  Brooklyn's Vladimir Nikiforov scored on an empty net at 19:22 to send the Blue Fins off into the Jamaica Bay night to sleep with the rest of the fishes.




Aviators' starting goalie; Thomas Lee; faced forty-three total shots, and turned back forty for his third win of the season and a job well done; for Cape Cod out-shot Brooklyn in this game 43-32. 




...And with two more wins under their belts, a successful weekend against the Federal Hockey League's bottom two teams comes to an end.  But Brooklyn and Cape Cod will have little time to heal their wounds.  They have a quick turn-around this week and will face-off against each other again Tuesday night up in Hyannis. 




Can't wait!





LINKS:

Federal Hockey League
Brooklyn Aviators
Cape Cod Blue Fins
Danville Dashers








Mike.BTB