BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
DANBURY, CT – Ahmed Mahfouz tallied five points including a Gordie Howe hat trick while Brandon Tucker had a hat trick to lead the Elmira Enforcers as they knocked off the Danbury Hat Tricks 5-2 at the Danbury Ice Arena on Friday night.
Danbury remains in first place in the FPHL East Division despite their record taking a dip to 18-7-0-1 (58 points). They remain 12 points ahead of the second place Watertown (NY) Wolves who lost 6-2 to the Columbus River Dragons.
Elmira’s record improves to .500 at 12-12-0-2. They are now tied for third place in the East with the Mentor (OH) Ice Breakers, who lost 3-2 to Danville. Both teams have 41 points.
Mahfouz’s five points allowed him to vault into second place in the FPHL scoring race as he tries to catch the league’s leading scorer, Tyler Gjurich (Watertown), the team’s playing assistant coach who was held off the scoreboard Friday.
The road team came ready to play as Elmira, garbed in their black jerseys trimmed in lime green, as they jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first five minutes of the game.
Just 50 seconds in, the Enforcers had a two-on-one. Mahfouz, a Lebanese-Canadian, wired his shot from the right-wing circle off a cross-ice feed past Hat Tricks goalie, Dillon Kelly.
On the Enforcers’ first power play they put it in the net at 3:13 as Mahfouz converted on a pass from Hudson Michealis.
At 5:06, Elmira got on the board again. Brandon Tucker, a righthanded shot, was on the left-wing and converted the cross-ice pass from Mahfouz and snapped it far side.
In honor of celebrating New Haven hockey, the Hat Tricks wore a gray scheme jersey with the Nighthawks logo that looked like the 1990-91 edition.
Head coach Bill McCreary took a timeout at this point to settle the troops down.
It worked briefly.
The Hat Tricks scored when Kruz Listmayer was in the left-wing circle and took a pass from Kendall Bolen-Porter and fired his shot to the far side past Elmira goalie, Troy Passingham.
However, Elmira tacked on a fourth goal as Tucker tallied his second of the period taking the pass from Mahfouz (four points in the period) at 13:37.
The Hat Tricks tried to spend more time in the offensive zone and got several quality shots from, but Passingham kept Danbury off the scoreboard.
The Hat Tricks briefly closed the scoring gap scoring on a five-on-three power play early in the second period to make it 4-2.
The Hat Tricks tallied in just seven seconds after Bolen-Porter won the faceoff and got the puck to Carter Shinkaruk who passed it to Shayne Morrissey and he deposited his goal at 38 seconds.
Elmira added to their scoring in the second as Mahfouz tallied his fourth assist in setting up Tucker’s hart trick goal and 5-1 Enforcers lead.
Mahfouz circled on the right-wing around defenseman who couldn’t turn in time and he went up the left side wide and slipped a pass to Tucker with a semi-screen scored his third goal of the game at 6:12.
Mahfouz picked up the Gordie How hat trick late in the period with a tussle with the Danbury’s Steve Mele
In the third period, the Hat Tricks made an effort to get back in the game, but Passingham, who’s 6’5 kept the puck out of the net.
Steve Brown’s backhand attempt was stopped then the Hat Tricks Nicola Levesque and Brown again were rejected in their efforts to get the red light on.
Michaelis had three chances in the third all turned aside by Dillon Kelly who had a slow start along with his teammates in the first period where the Enforcers did all their damage.
Tucker made a bid for his fourth goal of the night late, but Kelly came up with the save.
NOTES:
It was New Haven Hockey Night at the Danbury Arena and former Nighthawk, Dan McCarthy (1979-1981) was in attendance along with his wife Lori.
He played five NHL games with the Rangers. He scored four goals and was the 223rd overall pick in the 15th round of the 1978 draft from the Sudbury Wolves by the Blueshirts.
His 1976-77 record in Sudbury for consecutive games scoring the game-winner of four still stands.
He married and stayed in Connecticut and stay involved in hockey starting a junior team based in West Haven, the Connecticut Junior Wolves, in the old Metropolitan Junior Hockey League.
McCarthy teamed with fellow Nighthawk alumni and Ontario native, Bob Crawford, and the two combined their junior organizations and formed, the Hartford Jr. Wolf Pack which is based in Cromwell.
A few old Nighthawk jerseys were spotted.
A #14 Trevor Steinburg, a former NHL 1dt round pick of the Quebec Nordiques in his 23rd year as head coach for Saint Mary’s University Huskies (Halifax) and his son Matt plays for Cornell University (ECACHL).
#22 Ken Baumgartner’s, black and silver, was worn by one of the toughest players in New Haven hockey history and easily its brightest. He is retired and working in the finance industry after 696 NHL games.
#7 Billy Newsom home white Nighthawks (black logo) actually played the UHL New Haven Knights.
#12 Jeff Jackson (black uni) played 30 games 1991-92 and left the game as a player after that season and is now a player agent and did work in the Toronto front office from 2006-2010.
A white #29 goalie David Goverde he played just five games for the Nighthawks had a long minor pro career in the defunct West Coast Hockey League Phoenix Mustangs winning a Taylor Cup in 1999-00 and was a Second Team ECHL All-Star with the Toledo Storm.
Danbury’s Carter Shinkaruk is a cousin to Hunter Shinkaruk of Charlotte (AHL).
He is also a graduate of Elmira College (SUNYAC).
Watertown’s Tyler Gjurich played for the Danbury Titans (2015-16) tallying a 100 points tops in the then FHL and was a Hartford Wolf Pack training camp invitee six years ago.
Another Danbury player in the FPHL is heavyweight Anthony Pisano of the Delaware Thunder who played for the Titans.
Only two ex-Danbury Trashers are still playing in Jean-Michel Daoust with St. Jerome (LNAH) and Jon “Nasty” Mirasty in Canadian Senior league hockey with the Meadow Lake Broncos (SASHL).
Three ex-Trashers are head coaches two in Canadian major junior, Troy Smith Saginaw (OHL), Bruce Richardson Blainville-Boisbriand (QMJHL) and one minor pro, Doug Christiansen Indy (ECHL).
Two in American juniors, Drew Omicioli South Shore (USPHL-Premier) and Jamie Thompson Ontario (CA) (WSHL).
Two in Europe, Danny Stewart Coventry (England-EIHL) and Sergei Durdin HK Mogo (Latvia-LHL) as an assistant coach.
There are two sons of Trashers playing hockey Dalton Duhart (father Jim) with Barrie (OHL) after a trade, from London and Blake Richardson plays for his father Brice in Blainville-Boisbriand.
PHOTOS BY GERRY CANTLON
