Photo by Dan Stockfield
BY: Casey Bryant, Danbury Hat Tricks
DANBURY, CT – History was made at the Danbury Ice Arena, as the FPHL’s Hat Tricks earned their first home victory in franchise history by topping the Elmira Enforcers 7-4, on Friday night.
“It’s always great to win at home,” said Hat Tricks head coach Billy McCreary said. “I liked the jump in our game, we have a few things that we want to tighten up, but for the most part we had great energy and did a good job supplying pressure up front.”
Danbury jumped out to an early lead courtesy of Cory Anderson, who rifled home a wrist shot from between the hash marks just 1:33 into the game. Jonny Ruiz made it 2-0 with a power play goal at 5:52.
The Enforcers answered back 32 seconds later when Ahmed Mahfouz netted his fifth goal of the season at 6:24 to make it a 2-1 home team lead.
Danbury jumped right back into the fray adding a third goal just 26 seconds later as a net-mouth scramble led to Vladyslav Gavrik’s third goal of the season to restore Danbury’s two-goal margin at 3-1.
At 14:19, Anderson would strike again to make it a 4-1 Hat Trick lead.
As the period was coming to a close, with 57 seconds left, Sean Reynolds took a pass from Mahfouz and put one past Hat Tricks starting netminder, Dillon Kelley (36 saves) to send the teams to the intermission with the Hat Tricks leading 4-2.
Despite being down two goals, the Enforcers went to the first break leading in shot attempts, 14-13.
In the second period, the Hat Tricks failed to capitalize on a golden opportunity as Elmira took back-to-back penalites, a cross-checking call to Christian Whitcomb at 3:32 and then just shy of a minute later, at 4:27, Jordan Clarke took a hooking call giving the Hat Tricks a two-man advantage for 1:05. Danbury got two shots from Steve Mele on the two-man advantage but Passingham was able to deny him both times.
A nifty passing play led to a Jordan Clarke goal for Elmira midway through the second, but Ruiz banged home a rebound minutes later for his second of the contest to keep the Hat Tricks’ lead at two.
Kyle Stevens pulled the Enforcers to within a goal at 4-3 at 10:58 off a Mahfouz pass giving him his third point of the night midway through the second period.
At 14:57 Ruiz restored the Hat Tricks two-goal margin with an even strength goal off passes from Phil Bronner and Nicola Levesque to make it 5-3
Andrew Harrison responded with a quick strike to make it 5-4 off a Clarke feed.
With Gordy Bonnel in the penalty box for Danbury for a hooking call at 18:21, Elmira coughed up the puck allowing for a shorthanded three-on-one odd-man rush. The Hat Tricks executed a perfect tic-tac-toe sequence allowing Bronner to give the Hat Tricks a much-needed shot in the arm heading into the final frame and a 6-4 lead.
Sam Williams would tack on one more in the third period at 7:29 for Danbury, securing the 7-4 final.
“It’s a big win for us,” Anderson said. “We got a lot of chances. They’re a good team over there. We wanted to get that first home win and give our fans something to cheer about.”
The Hat Tricks will be back in action tomorrow night for a rematch with the Enforcers.
