Photo by Dan Stockfield
BY: Casey Bryant, Danbury Hat Tricks
DANBURY, CT – A physical weekend ended Saturday night at the Danbury Ice Arena in an ugly 8-3 fashion by the visiting Elmira Enforcers over the Danbury Hat Tricks.
The Hat Tricks surrendered three goals in a span of 26-seconds in the second period sinking the black-and-orange before a crowd of 1,492.
At 16:56 of the second period, Danbury’s sweeping intensity led to a scrum after the whistle that led to a fight between Elmira’s Ahmed Mahfouz and Danbury’s Phil Bronner. While the officials were busy pulling the two apart, Enforcers forward Kyle Stevens, and Hat Tricks player/coach Nicola Levesque squared off at center ice. Levesque dropped Stevens after a lengthy bout, firing up the Danbury Arena crowd. All were issued fighting majors while both Levesque and Stevens were issued Game Misconducts.
The momentum shifted and Elmira jumped all over it.
Skinner netted a goal into an empty cage when Danbury goaltender Tom McGuckin dove out to the hashmarks on a partial breakaway. Eleven seconds later, Andrew Harrison poked a slow, trickling puck through McGuckin’s five-hole. Then, just fifteen seconds after, Harrison banged home a pop-up rebound, chasing McGuckin from the contest.
The scoring began at 2:19, after a tripping call went to Mahfouz. At the same time, Danbury’s Matyas Kasek was issued an instigator minor but also handed a five-minute major for fighting. Elmira gained plenty of momentum from the major penalty and took an early lead at 6:26, when Mahfouz and Michealis set up a power play goal by Andrew Harrison.
The Enforcers outshot the Hat Tricks 12-5 in the first frame and carried the 1-0 lead into the second period.
Penalties would hurt the Hat Tricks again in the second period as Bronner went to the sin bin for an Unsportsmanlike Conduct call at 6:55. Mahfouz took a pass from Harrison and Cameron Yarwood who buried a power-play goal 7:44 into the second.
Christian Whitcomb was called for a double minor for boarding and Unsportsmanlike Conduct allowing the Hat Tricks to go on the power play. Casper Dyrssen would put Danbury on the board just 17 seconds into the man-advantage. With two minutes of power play time remaining and the tying score just out of reach, the Hat Tricks applied intense pressure on Enforcers netminder, Troy Passingham.
“We’ve got to be more disciplined,” Levesque said after the game. “I was trying to help my team out [with the fight], obviously it didn’t work out the way we wanted. We’ve got to turn the page and get the next one.”
Danbury will be on home ice next weekend against the Battle Creek Rumble Bees.
