BKN Aviators ~ Crushing OT Loss; Face Elimination in Danbury

From the desk of:   THE SKATES OF FLATBUSH

FRIDAY NIGHT FINAL ~ GAME ONE

Danbury Whalers   5

Brooklyn Aviators  4

OVERTIME

BROOKLYN AVIATORS:  The Skates of Flatbush Must Now Duke Out Two Wins in Danbury.

Danbury Whalers Fans Have a Wild Time in Brooklyn.  A's Answer Three Whaler Goals With a Four Goal Comeback.  Danbury ties Game With 0:03 Left on Clock; Win in Over-Time.

Links:

Danbury Whalers

Brooklyn Aviators

Federal Hockey League

There were no fights or acts of questionable character - just a small assortment of typical Hockey infractions that do not induce players to lose their composure during playoff games.  This was a very well played game actually; - Not that we should be surprised.  Brooklyn fans did get caught off guard however.



The first period against Danbury gave Aviator fans every indication Game One of these playoffs was going to be a long night.  The Whalers' faithful fanatics, generally acknowledged as the league's most rabid supporters, invaded Hangar Five in numbers.  They came donned in their green, blue, and white colored jerseys, and basically had their way of the place.  They were raucously loud and for good reason too.  After the teams spent the first ten minutes or so shadow boxing, Danbury went to work on the Aviators' goalie, initially scoring at 13:42, then two more times within the nineteenth minute to close out the opening session staked to a 3-0 lead.

The Whalers' Rooters did their part too, as they were in Brooklyn's Josselin St. Pierre's ear most of the night, but more so when he tended net on the scoreboard side of the ice.  He was the target of a tireless stream of jeers and heckling emanating from sections nineteen and twenty in particular.  That three goal Whaler lead after the first twenty minutes had them all feeling pretty good about themselves.  And in the spirit of sharing, they expressed their opinion of St. Pierre often.  They savored all forty-four Danbury shots against the Flatbush goalie like forty-four indelible moments in time.  Gotta give 'em credit for that.

Jesse Felten tried quieting them down with a power play goal at the 2:51 mark of the second period, making it a 3-1 game.  But after Peter Vetri denied Flatbush upon being awarded a penalty shot, the Danbury contingent was right back at it.



However, Brooklyn was getting their chances and Josselin St. Pierre had a much better second period.  Then came the comeback.  It was now Peter Vetri's time to struggle stopping pucks.  Two and a half minutes into the third period, Michael Thompson's goal got Flatbush to within one.  At the 7:33 mark, Chris Campanale tied the game at three, off assists by Andrew Scampoli, and Michael Thompson.  And needless to say, Hangar Five was hearing less and less from the first two sections off to the right.  Then, at 11:25, Michael Thompson assisted Casey Mignone's goal for a 4-3 Brooklyn lead.  After four unanswered goals over the last two periods, it was now Flatbush Fans pumpin' up the noise in their house.



For the next 8:32, Brooklyn nursed their one goal lead.  Josselin St. Pierre was holding up as Brooklyn was limiting Danbury to their lowest shots-on-goal total of the three periods.  Then Coach Esposito did what any coach should do in the closing moments of this game.  He pulled his goalie in favor of the sixth skater.  And it paid off.  With just three second left on the clock, Danbury scored.  And yeah, sections nineteen and twenty went bonkers.



At 13:40 of overtime, the Danbury Whalers scored again; unassisted no less.  Game over.  And for the people dressed in green, blue, and white jerseys, it was party on.  Once they all regained their composure, it was back to Connecticut for them.  Depending on traffic, the seventy mile drive back to Danbury should take about an hour and a half.  While the A's damn-nearly sent them all home in silence, instead I'm sure there will be car loads of people recapturing the moments of a great game; a great win, and a great trip over all to Brooklyn; for them at least.

Instead, Flatbush will have the quiet drive north.  They'll have seventy miles to ponder how they let one get away after staging such a resilient comeback.  And they'll now have to think about winning two games in a place that will packed with just more than two sections of people wearing green, blue, and white jerseys.  In Danbury, they pack the joint with four-digit figures.  And they certainly won't be there to welcome Brooklyn with open arms either.



I'm sure Coach Miller and his Aviators are stewing.  They had their chance.  In last season's playoffs, Brooklyn had to win Game Four in Danbury to avoid elimination, then won Game Five in Brooklyn to clinch a trip to the championship round.  They are faced once with having to win two in row again if they are to duplicate last year's effort; albeit in a best of three series this time.  But they need to win this evening just to stay alive first.

GAME TWO

BROOKLYN AVIATORS

vs.

Danbury Whalers

From,

THE DANBURY ICE ARENA
Delay Street, Danbury





GAME ONE SHOTS

Let's Go A's!

Mike.BTB

BKN Aviators ~ First Round Preview Versus Danbury Whalers

From the desk of:   THE SKATES OF FLATBUSH

2011-2012

FEDERAL HOCKEY LEAGUE

PLAYOFFS

 

ROUND ONE

Best of Three:

I - DAW @ BKN

II - BKN @ DAW

III - BKN @ DAW*

*if necessary

 

FRIDAY NIGHT PUCKS

GAME ONE

#3 - Danbury Whalers

vs.

#4 - BROOKLYN AVIATORS

From,

HANGAR FIVE

Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn

 

BROOKLYN AVIATORS:   Hello Danbury.  We Meet Again.

Brooklyn and Danbury will face-off in a best two of three series to open the 2011-2012 Federal Hockey League playoffs...; Again.  And I wouldn't have it any other way.  Decades from now, when someone sets out to write the history of these two teams, the early years will most certainly focus on this two years young, yet very intense rivalry.  But why wait, right?  Let's do this now!

Word is there were circling complaints within the League regarding Akwesasne's overly-aggressive and highly physical play this season.  I know this much, none of those gripes came out of Brooklyn, or Danbury.  If anything, the Warriors are just picking up on a trend Danbury and Brooklyn started last season against each other.  But yeah, the Warriors have been a bunch of brutes this season; no doubt.  However, that's old hat to Danbury and Flatbush.  Their dislike was a mutual feeling upon their first ever face-off.  And so, here we go again.

Brooklyn defeated the Danbury Whalers last season to advance to the FHL Championship round; only to lose to the fore mentioned Warriors.  But they needed all five games against Danbury to get there, and then some.  They split the first two games in Brooklyn.  Then Flatbush suffered a crushing over-time road loss in game three.  With their backs to the wall, they won game four in Danbury to bring the deciding game five back to Brooklyn.  Regulation time ended in a 3-3 tie.  And so they went into over-time for a second time in the series.  Shortly into game five's sudden death session, Jesse Felten assisted on the game's winning goal.  And now, he'll try and lead his team against the Danbury Whalers again this season.

Flatbush and Danbury clashed ten times and split the season  series down the middle, winning five games each.  So they know each other well; very well in fact.  Entering Friday night's game, Brooklyn is 3-2 against the Whalers when hosting at The Hangar.  Flatbush has outscored Danbury by a 43-30 margin this season.  In fact, they scored six or more times in four of the five wins Brooklyn has over Danbury.







The Aviators got caught in a bit of a tail spin to begin the new year.  And Danbury capitalized on the opportunity to pass Brooklyn by in the standings.  Once the Whalers took hold of third place, they were never threatened by Brooklyn or Akwesasne the rest of the way.  Number three seed Danbury finished the regular season with twenty-eight wins and eighty-nine points.  Number four seed Brooklyn, finished with twenty-five wins, and eighty-two points.



Without excuses, Brooklyn has played through their share of ECHL call-ups.  Of the players remaining, centerman Jesse Felten leads Brooklyn's scorers with twenty-seven goals and twenty-seven assists, for fifty-four points.  Matt Moffat is Danbury's leading scorer with seventeen goals and forty-two assists, for fifty-nine points.



Danbury sports three other players with over forty points.  Greg Holt has fifteen goals and forty-six points.  Sean O'Malley has twenty-goals and forty-two points.  And Chris Siefert has twenty-one goals and also has forty-two points.  While at season's end, Brooklyn's other remaining top scorers were Casey Mignone, who scored nineteen goals with forty points.  Matt Atsoff had eighteen goals with thirty one points.



But Brooklyn has other players to consider in light of ECHL call-ups.  Lucas Schott has twelve goals in twenty-six games.  Nick Petriello has twelve goals in twenty-three games.  And Michael Thompson has nine goals in sixteen games.

In discussing the guys between the pipes, Danbury's starting goalie, Peter Vetri (l.) is all too familiar to the A's.  After the pair of net-minders the #1 New Jersey Outlaws platoon between the pipes, the Whalers' goalie was perhaps the League's best this season.  With twenty-one wins, he was third in the circuit behind New Jersey's Dan McWhinney, who tied for the League lead with twenty-four wins, along with 1000 Islands' Matt Anthony, who also had twenty-four wins.  Vetri came in second in the League with a .919 Save Percentage, and was number three with a 3.28 GAA.  Whalers' back-up Nick Neidert played in thirteen games with a 5-6 record.

Brooklyn's main guy in net is Josselin St, Pierre.  While seemingly not impressive as Vetri's record, in twenty-five games, St. Pierre (r.) was 12-9-2-0 this season.  He placed fourth, right behind Peter Vetri in GAA with a 3.35 mark.  His .903 Save Percentage also ranked just behind Peter Vetri's mark, and again was good for fourth best in the League.  He was one of only four goalies this season to have a better than .900 Save Percentage; keeping in mind, New Jersey boasts two of them, leaving Vetri and himself.



But Coach Miller is just as likely to start back-up Michael DiLorenzo as well.  Coach Miller gave his newly acquired goalie substantial minutes between the pipes down the stretch, as if to hopefully get him up to game speed in time for the playoffs.  He only has fifteen games played all season.  In eight games for Brooklyn, he was 5-2, with a 3.00 GAA, and a .915 Save Percentage.  In seven games with Delaware prior to his acquisition, his numbers are less appealing.



Friday night, Game One of the best two out of three series will be in Hangar Five.  Game Two, and if necessary Game Three, will be played before, what I'm sure will be a raucous, League's best, Danbury crowd.  The winner of this series will move on to play the winner of the 1000 Islands/Akwesasne series.



I'm expecting nothing short than an intense, hard hitting, somewhat chippy, but well played series by both teams.  While tempers are always liable to explode when these two teams meet, I think hockey will prevail and sportsmanship doesn't deteriorate too badly.  And if mood mismanagement does bring out the worst in each other, well, that's always fun too.



Good Luck to the Danbury Whalers, although I really don't mean it.  But then again, we need each other in order to create great moments in FHL Hockey.  I hope I did you guys some justice here.



And Let's Go Aviators!!





Mike.BTB

BKN Aviators ~ Face Off Against Rival Danbury Tonight

From the desk of:   THE SKATES OF FLATBUSH

FRIDAY NIGHT PUCKS

Danbury Whalers

vs.

BROOKLYN AVIATORS

From,

HANGAR FIVE

Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn

BROOKLYN AVIATORS:  Flying High; Winners of Eight of Their Last Nine Games.  Swept Pair of Games From Danbury Last Weekend - Look to do the Same Tonight.



The A's will play their lone game of the weekend against their chief rivals, the Danbury Whalers, tonight in Hangar Five.  They'll try and pick up where they left off last weekend, when they took both games of a home and home against Danbury, and then took a huge game from first place New Jersey.


The three wins propelled the A's into third place who now have sixty-four points.  New Jersey is still running away with the circuit with ninety-six points, while 1000 Islands maintains a firm grip on second with eighty-six points.  Even though they only have fifty-four points, the Akwesasne Warriors still hold an advantage over Danbury by percentage points due to having played six less games than the Whalers (and Brooklyn).  But the Danbury Whalers do have sixty-two points and can pull even with Brooklyn tonight.


Since losing back-to-back games against the New Jersey Outlaws in January, the Skates of Flatbush have gone on to win eight of their last nine games.  They rebounded to defeat New Jersey twice since then, and beat the 1000 Islands Privateers once.  And after taking a pair from the Whalers last weekend, Brooklyn leads the season series versus Danbury four wins to three.


Thirteen games remain in the Aviators' season.  Brooklyn will play Danbury three more times after tonight.  They have four more games against last place Danville.  Three games remain against the Outlaws.  And three games remain against last year's FHL Champion; Akwesasne Warriors.


The battle to stay within the first division will not be easy.  But this season is headed towards another fun finish as the A's are seemingly ironing out the wrinkles involved with incorporating new players into the fold.




REMINDER:  Don't forget, Saturday's home game against the VERMONT WILD has been cancelled.  There is no game.  There is no more Wild.  That is all.




I'll be at the game tonight.  Maybe I'll see you there.  Tweet me.





Mike.BTB

BKN Aviators ~ Take Second Big Game From Danbury

From the desk of:   THE COOLEST GUYS IN BROOKLYN

BROOKLYN AVIATORS:   A's Finish Off Danbury in Two Straight.  Now Winners of Seven out of Last Eight Games.



How about that?  The latest goalie of the day; newly acquired Michael DiLorenzo; not only earned his first win in his first start as an Aviator, he won his first game of the season after seven previous games played for Delaware.  He faced 38 Danbury shots and stopped 36 of them to secure Brooklyn's second straight victory over the rival Whalers.

The two teams competed with far more civility in The Hangar than when compared to Thursday night's bar fight on Danbury's ice.  And for the most part both stayed in control of their tempers.  Minus a slash and some stick infractions, every one stayed cool.  Good guys or bad guys, neither tact worked for Danbury though.  And now they are the ones looking up at Brooklyn in the standings.  Two games; two wins for Brooklyn.  The late season surge is on indeed.  The Skates of Flatbush are now winners of seven of their last eight games.

With one game to go this weekend against New Jersey, the Aviators have so far landed ahead of Danbury in fourth place with sixty-one points.  Danbury slides back to fifth place with fifty-nine points.  Although the Akwesasne Warriors only have fifty-one points, they remain in third place by percentage points due to having played five less games than Brooklyn and Danbury.


It was retro-night of sorts in Hangar Five.  Many of the names we've come to expect led the way for Brooklyn Friday night.  Just keep in mind, Danbury was short players for their involvement in Thursday's exercise in belligerence.


Matt Atsoff was the lone goal scorer of the first period.  His fifteenth of the season came at 14:44; assisted by Andrew Scampoli and Michael Thomson.


At 5:49 of the second period, Brooklyn's Steve Koich got whistled for a slash.  But it was Jesse Felten who cashed in on a short-handed chance a minute later.  Several minutes later, a hooking penalty called against Danbury resulted in Jesse Felten's power play, and second consecutive goal of the period; good for a 3-0 Brooklyn lead.  However with less than a minute left in the period, Danbury got on the board on a James Sanford power play goal off a Michael Thomson hooking penalty to make it a 3-1 game.


Andrew Scampoli found his lost scoring touch again at 4:35 of the third period.  Then at the midway point of the period, Jesse Felten tallied another to complete the hat-trick.  It was his fifth goal in two nights against Danbury.  The Whalers answered that goal a short time later.  But Steve Koich pushed back again with another Brooklyn goal at the 18:00 mark, for a 6-2 lead and a final score.


After getting pummelled the night before, Peter Vetri did not start in goal for Danbury.  Instead Nick Niedert made the start, stopping 29 of 35 shots.


Next up; the first place New Jersey Outlaws.  Brooklyn finally broke through and defeated New Jersey 6-1 for the first time in their previous meeting.  Prior to that, New Jersey was 8-0 over Brooklyn this season and outscored them a combined 45-22 over that time.

SATURDAY

BROOKLYN AVIATORS
vs.

New Jersey Outlaws

From,

Other Side of NY Harbor

Mike.BTB

BKN Aviators ~ Danbury Loses Minds and Game; Round VII Tonight

From the desk of:   THE COOLEST GUYS IN BROOKLYN

FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS HOCKEY

in HANGAR FIVE

ROUND - VII

Danbury Whalers

vs.

BROOKLYN AVIATORS

from,

FLATBUSH AVENUE

Kings County

I - BKN 8  -  DNW 1

II - DNW 3  -  BKN 2

III - DNW 3  -  BKN 1

IV - BKN 4  -  DNW 2

V - DNW 8  -  BKN 3

THURSDAY  Feb. 2, 2012

VI - BKN 9 - DNW 3
Series tied 3-3

It's now that time when the Aviators are not only skating against their competition, they're skating against the clock/schedule as well.  So in a series that quite literally can flip the standings between these two teams, the Skates of Flatbush took a strong confident stride in the right direction by taking care of business up in Danbury last night.  Danbury handed Brooklyn their first loss after winning five straight last weekend.  A pair of wins this weekend against their rival gets them back into the all important first division standings again.  They got a big win Thursday.  And now it's home to Brooklyn for a Friday night in Hangar Five.


The first period between visiting Brooklyn and the Danbury Whalers was more like the Chase Watson Show.  The new Aviator centerman, signed in January, opened the scoring right away with his fourth goal of the season at the 1:42 mark.  Chase then assisted on Jesse Felten's goal a little over two minutes later for Watson's eighteenth point in nine games.  Jesse Felten returned the favor assisting on Chase Watson's second goal of the period; this one coming on the power play.


Brooklyn shut-down Danbury allowing just four first period shots on goal against Flatbush starter Josselin St. Pierre.  At the other end, they spent the period peppering Danbury goalie; Peter Vetri; with eighteen first period shots.  Things could have been worse for Danbury as they allowed Brooklyn seven PP opportunities in the first period alone.  And luckily for them, Brooklyn's Coolest only cashed in once with the man advantage.  But it was Danbury who would lose their cool this night, and practically spent the entire third period at a disadvantage due to a major lack of comportment on their part.


In the second period, Danbury continued to their lack of discipline and thus kept putting Brooklyn on the Power Play.  At the 3:36 mark, both Whaler's goalie Perter Vetri, and Coach Phil Esposito, were given Unsportsmanlike Conducts while Esposito was additionally called for the Bench Minor.  That was a mere prelude of things to come.  Twenty seconds into the power play, Jesse Felten struck for his second goal giving Flatbush a 4-0 lead.  Michael Thomson, and Ken Trentowski (who was recently named FHL Rookie of the Month) assisted on Felten's twentieth goal of the season.


Brooklyn took another seventeen shots against Peter Vetri in the second period and limited Danbury to just eight shots against Josselin St. Pierre, for a two period total of twelve.


Danbury finally got on the board in the third period.  At 2:21, the Whalers' Chris Seifert made it a 4-1 game.  Then half way through the period, Chase Watson completed his hat-trick with a power play goal.   At that point, every one in the crowd could smell what was cooking.  The game, sportsmanship, and everything just degenerated from then on.  Brooklyn's next four goals came on the power play as well.  Why?


Apparently, Brooklyn kicked too much sand under Danbury's skates and so the home team looked to take out some frustrations on the invaders visitors.  However, it seemed since they dropped the puck way back in the first period, the Whalers came into the game seemingly inspired to spear, slash,  elbow, be abusive to the Ref, fight, charge, cross-check, and in a case or two, get disqualified.  OH! - And as an encore, Danbury broke out with some new material. - Try this one;  -  a Tier One Gross Gross Gross Misconduct Penalty.  Hey, if that was their plan, mission accomplished. 


In between all Danbury's frolicking and fiestiness, Nick Petriello; Joe Dabkowski; Casey Mignone; and Lucas Schott all tallied power play goals for Flatbush during the third period melee.  The A's took another TWENTY-SIX shots for good measure against a combination of Whaler goalies, for a grand total of sixty-one shots on goal for the game.   Yep.


There was one moment of clarity.  Danbury scored shorthanded shortly before regulation time expired. The "game" finally ended in a 9-2 final.  And now they get to do it again; Tonight!


Yeah!  Tonight the Whalers must come to Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn.  How appropriate huh?  The Dukes Skates of Flatbush will be there waiting along with somewhere between six to eight hundred of their fans friends too.  And who knows, maybe cooler heads prevail and a hockey game breaks out. 


But all kidding aside, this is a very important game for the A's.  A loss would just cancel out last night's effort and keep them skating in place.  By winning Thursday night, they leapfrogged over Danbury in the standings and are now in fourth place and back in the first division just behind Akwesasne.


The late season push is on!


Let's Go Aviators!






Mike.BTB

BKN Aviators ~ Friday Night Rumble in Danbury

From the desk of:  THE COOLEST GUYS IN BROOKLYN

BROOKLYN AVIATORS:  Week Two Cleared For Take-Off; Mission - Danbury.


It's that time; it's FHL week two and the A's are opening the doors to Hangar Five and taking-off for Connecticut.  Friday night, Brooklyn's Coolest will head up to Danbury for their first meeting against the Whalers.  Then Saturday, the Aviators return to Hangar Five for a rematch against the Cape Cod Bluefins who defeated the A's in over-time last time they met in Hyannis.




The first place New Jersey Outlaws may have ruined our home-ice opener this season and they'll surely need to pay for that...eventually.  But right now they're still second-in on Brooklyn's rivalry depth chart.  Danbury however; - The Danbury Whalers?  Now you speak of the Brooklyn Aviators' true rival.  After the inaugural season of FHL play, this has developed into a fierce Tri-State area rivalry indeed.  And the folks of Danbury are without a doubt very supportive of their team and fill the seats, which should add some electricity to this initial Friday night match-up of the season.



One thing is very clear about the Danbury team thus far, they are very strong up the middle. Center - Kelly Miller leads Danbury scoring after two games with three goals and three assists; good for six points.  Center-Chris Seifert and Center-Joe Dabkowski are Danbury's other two multiple goal scorers. 



Casey Mignone is Brooklyn's leading goal scorer so far with a pair.  And newcomer Chris Ferazolli leads the team in points with four on the strength of three assists.



Whalers' goalie-Rick Niedert has made both of Danbury's starts so far.  A's Coach Miller rotated his goalies last week.  Lee Thomas made two starts for the A's while Peter Dundovich started in net once.  On a side note, Peter's lone start against Cape Cod last week is still something bordering bizarre.



The A's signed a pair of players during the week.  Coach Miller signed Forward - Vladimir Nikiforov from the ECHL, and picked up more defensive help from the SPHL by signing Defenseman - Ken Trentowski.  Both should be in uniform for Friday's game.



New Jersey leads the circuit with four games played and nine points.  Brooklyn trails in fourth place with four points after three games and Danbury is fifth with three points after two games played.

FHL.com

BrooklynAviators.com

DanburyWhalers

FRIDAY NIGHT

BROOKLYN AVIATORS

(1-1-1) 

vs.

Danbury Whalers

(1-1-0)

From

Danbury, Connecticut

Mike.BTB