N.Y. AVIATORS ~ Game 5; Beat Danbury in OT - Reach FHL Finals

From the desk of:  The Coolest Guys in Brooklyn


NEW YORK AVIATORS:  The Coolest Guys In Brooklyn win Round One Clincher in Over-Time.

Game One of FHL Finals at Hangar #5 next Friday night!


The Federal League's Southern Division playoff series came down to a final Game Five.  The Aviators and Danbury Whalers split the first two games in Brooklyn then split the next two in Danbury.  Today, the deciding Game Five was played in Brooklyn's Hangar #5 at Floyd Bennett Field.   But when regulation time expired, we still had no winner.  Overtime would be needed to decide which team would take on the Akwesasne Warriors for the Federal League's Inaugural Championship.

In a game played by Danbury with far more discipline than Saturday's Game Four penalty riddled affair, it was an Aviator this time who was ejected from this contest for poor usage of his stick.  With less than two minutes remaining in regulation time, N.Y.'s John Goffredo was a assessed a four minute double-minor for high-sticking and given the obligatory ten minute major with the accompanying ejection.  Otherwise, both teams kept the penalty count respectable.

NY's Christopher Holmes started this afternoon's scoring with a goal (assisted by Angelo Serse; Anthony Longo) at the 9:02 mark of the first period.  But two minutes later, Danbury's Chris Seifert tied the score at the 11:04 mark.  That's the way the first period would end.  New York had fifteen shots-on-goal to the Whalers' eight.  New York was 0 for 1 on the PP.

To start the second period, the home ice crowd watched their A's jump out to another lead when Matthew Puntureri scored at the 2:09 mark (assisted by Jesse Felten; Jarrett Rush).  But the Danbury Whalers had other ideas for the crowd.  They answered back quickly to bring silence among Hangar #5's rooters.  At 3:42, Matt Caranci scored to tie the score at two apiece.  Then slightly more than a minute later, Chris Seifert would put the Whalers ahead for the first time in this game.  Both teams committed three penalties each and went a combined 0-6 on their respective power plays during the second period.

Danbury held on to their 3-2 lead beyond the half way point of the third period.  But at the 13:13 mark, New York's Nick Grove (assisted by Jesse Felten; Nick Vandenbeld) scored to get the game tied again.  And that's the way regulation time would end; tied 3-3.

After the regular season and a full five games during the first round playoff, it still wasn't enough to decide a Southern Division participant for the Championship Series.

So to overtime they went.  It would be the second time these teams would wind up in overtime this series.  But The Coolest Guys In Brooklyn didn't make their fans wait too long for this series to reach it's conclusion.  They gave the Brooklyn fans their moment of jubilation at the 3:56 mark of the extra period.  Fittingly, it was Aviator favorite Matthew Puntureri (assisted by Jesse Felten) who netted home the game winning goal for Brooklyn's skaters.  It was his second and obviously the more dramatic goal of the game for Matthew. 

In the end, the final score on the big red scoreboard at the Hangar would read Aviators 4;  Danbury Whalers 3.  The A's, Brooklyn's Pro Hockey team, would be heading to the Championship Series versus the Akwesasne Warriors.


* N.Y. Goalie Kevin Druce picked up another win while stopping 21 of 24 shots.
* Shots On Goal Totals ~ N.Y. 33;  DAN 24
* Jesse Felten ~ 3 assists; 3 points
* Matthew Puntureri ~ 2 goals; game-winning goal

2010-2011
Federal League Championship Series

Akwesasne Warriors
vs.
NEW YORK AVIATORS


Game One of the Inaugural Federal Hockey League Championship Series
 Friday, March 18, 2011 @ Brooklyn's Aviator Sports Complex.

You can start previewing the Championship match-up
and crunching the numbers

HERE

LINKS:

The Federal Hockey League

New York Aviators

Akwesasne Warriors

Mike.BTB

N.Y. AVIATORS ~ Beat Danbury; Force Decisive Game Five

From the desk of:  The Coolest Guys in Brooklyn



N.Y. AVIATORS WIN GAME FOUR !!

FINAL:
New York Aviators 7;  Danbury Whalers 0
Series Tied 2-2



New York Aviators:  First Round Elimination Showdown

Brooklyn will host a decisive Game Five Match-Up against the Danbury Whalers on SUNDAY afternoon.

Sunday's Winner Will Move On To Play For 
The FHL Inaugrual Championship


Brooklyn; - At stake? - Who gets to represent the Southern Division in the Federal Hockey League's Inaugural Championship Series?  The Northern Division Champs; the Akwesasne Warriors, have already settled their business and wait for the conclusion of this Southern Division match-up.

Last weekend, the Aviators and Whalers split the first two games played in Brooklyn.  With the series now in Connecticut, Friday night the Whalers defeated the A's to take the series lead and put themselves in a position to clinch a spot in the Championship Round with a win tonight. 

So in Game Four, being down two games to one and facing elimination in this best 3 out of 5 first round series, Brooklyn's own New York Aviators, staked themselves to an early 1-0 lead on a goal by Matthew Puntureri (assisted by John Goffredo; Andrew Scampoli) at the 8:56 mark of the opening period.  The Aviators out-shot Danbury thirteen shots-on-goal versus six against during the first period.

After the first intermission, the A's quickly increased their lead by cashing in on a holding penalty called against Danbury's Leland Fidler with a power play goal off the stick of Andrew Scampoli (assisted by Michael Thomson; KC Timmons) at the 1:10 mark of the second period to make the score 2-0.  Then, at the 8:23 mark of the second period, the Aviators tacked on another goal to make the score 3-0 after Nick Grove scored (assisted by Casey Mignone; Stephen Oblinicki). 

The A's maintained furious pressure on Danbury's goalie Peter Vetri; peppering him with thirty-three shots through the first period and a half.  On the other side of the ice for New York's goalie, Kevin Druce's defense only required him to stop 10 shots over the same 30 minute span of time.  Then, all that peppering of Peter Vetri led to Brooklyn's fourth goal and their third of the second period.  Matthew Puntureri scored his second goal of the game (assisted by Nick Grove; Michael Thomson) this time coming on the power play. 

The A's fourth goal resulted from Danbury's eighth penalty.  The Aviators would capitalize on two of those opportunities going 2 for 8 to that point.  The Aviators, being somewhat more disciplined, limited the Whalers to 3-0 on their PP chances through the first two periods.

After 40 minutes of Hockey, the Aviators led 4-0.  The Danbury Whalers were limited to a measly 12 shots-on-goal while the New York Aviators took target practice on Danbury's Peter Vetri with 43 shots (30 in the second period).

Early in the third period, the Aviators third different scorer of the night would add his name to the box score.  At the 1:17 mark, Brett Dickinson (assisted by Matthew Puntureri; KC Timmons) scored on another power play following yet another Danbury penalty.  This time, a boarding penalty was called against Danbury's Devin Guy, just 0.35 seconds into the period.  This made the score 5-0 in favor of the visiting Aviators.  Then, less than three minutes later, Andrew Scampoli (assisted by Nick Vandenbeld; Jarrett Rush) scored his second goal of the night (to join Matthew Puntureri in that regard) at the 3:56 mark of the period to put the New York Aviators firmly in control of this game by a score of 6-0 and seemingly putting this contest out of reach for the home-ice Whalers.

There was a roughing penalty committed by Danbury's Devin Guy at the 20:00 mark of the first period that could have been a foreshadowing of things to come.  The zebras would whistle-up eight different infractions against the Whalers mostly of the roughing, slashing, and fighting variety during the second period alone.  The Danbury Whalers had one ejection ~ Corey Fulton; last seen taking his 15 minutes of penalty time and an ejection to the locker-room midway through the second period.


Danbury's Lucas Schott then took it upon himself to pick up the level of indiscretions for the Whalers.  He accumulated all 18 of his penalty minutes after Corey Fulton's departure.  I'd assume there's no correlation there...right?  Well..., he picked up where Fulton left off regardless.  Danbury's Lucas Schott was called for tripping at 12:09, but was also slapped with a 10:00 unsportsmanlike/misconduct penalty.   So, naturally, you guessed it;  The New York Aviators cashed in to make the score 7-0 favoring New York as Jarrett Rush (assisted by Matthew Puntierri) scored on the resulting power play with his first goal of the game.

The more Danbury tried to bully their way through this game, the more the Aviators made them pay for it on the scoreboard.  The Danbury Whalers had ten penalties against the Aviators four.  Four of those penalties were for roughing, to include two 10:00 minute majors.  A boarding; slash; and a cross-check rounds out the scope of the Whalers' offensive effort tonight.  None of which got them on the scoreboard though.  Danbury did mount more of an effort over the third period and managed to out-shoot the A's over the period.  It never amounted to much though.  The A's woefully out-shot the Whalers 51-22 tonight. 

The Aviators managed to do what they absolutely needed to do in order to extend this series and bring it back home.  And they did it in convincing fashion by shutting out the Danbury Whalers after suffering a crushing OT defeat the night before on Friday.  Now, both teams will board their respective team buses and head back to Brooklyn and play a decisive Game Five at Hangar #5 to see which of the two teams will get to go play for the FHL's Inaugural Championship against the Akwesasne Warriors.

C'mon Brooklyn! - They will drop the puck on tomorrow's Game Five Do-Or-Die Series Final at 3:05pm.  Come out to Floyd Bennett Field and let's show Danbury how we do it.  Show up and cheer on the Coolest Guys In Brooklyn with me as they try to win a clincher on home-ice.  If we want our Brooklyn Hockey Club to become big, we need to start by making tomorrow Huge!

Sunday - March 13, 2011

FEDERAL HOCKEY LEAGUE PLAYOFFS

Southern Division

Series Tied 2-2

GAME FIVE

Danbury Whalers

vs.

NEW YORK AVIATORS

From Hangar No. 5 ~ Floyd Bennett Field

BROOKLYN, New York

SEE YOU THERE!

Let's Go Aviators

Mike.BTB