DANBURY, CT – On paper, the FHL South division match-up between the Danbury Whalers and the New York Aviators would appear to be a mismatch. Just don’t tell the Whalers and their faithful followers.
Despite a 5-13 record against the Aviators in the regular season and a fourth place finish overall, the Whalers are headed to Brooklyn for games one and two led by snipers like Igor Karlov, Chris Seifert and Alec Kirschner and backed by gregarious, passionate fans looking for victory.
The Whalers completed the regular season on February 25th on home ice in front of 2,400 fans with a 4-1 victory over their rivals and ending the Aviators’ red-hot 21-game
Danbury%27s Alec Kirschner (5%2C center) beats two defenders for a goal (Photo courtesy of FHL/Danbury Whalers)
The Whalers started off on a strong note then hit a bad string of about 15 games but persevered through it. Danbury head coach Chris Firriolo has been involved with other teams that dominated throughout the season but struggled in the finals because they were not used to competing full force and lost as a result.
Firriolo is confident in his team’s ability to perform solidly in the first round despite their winning percentage of just over .500. He also believes that the obstacles the Whalers met in the regular season will
Danbury coach Chris Firriolo behind the Danbury bench (Photo courtesy of FHL/Danbury Whalers)
“I have preached to the guys all year long that it’s not how you start but how you finish,” Firriolo said.
The Whalers should have a full roster for the series as some injured players will be returning to the ice. Having all hands ready to go should make the second and third lines more effective, taking some of the pressure off of the top line of Seifert (24 goals, 18 assists for 42 points and a plus-24 rating), Kirschner (22-18-40, plus-27) and Martin Moucha (10-21-31, plus-23). Firriolo said that forwards Joe Dabkowski (11-12-23, plus-2), Matt Caranci (7-17-24, minus-3) and Devin Guy (9-17-26, minus-2) have made big contributions in the last few games and will be a huge plus for the playoffs. Guy and defenseman Leland Fidler (8-1-9, plus-11) were called up by the ECHL’s Elmira Jackals on February 26th but are expected to be back in time for the series opener Friday night.
Firriolo said that the series will most likely come down to goaltending. New York’s Kevin Druce (24-8-2, 2.51 goals against average, .916 save percentage) was the FHL’s top net minder and recently named Most Valuable Player. Danbury will counter with Nick Niedert (19-14-3, 3.52 goals against average, .898 save percentage) who won a championship with the Jersey Rockhoppers of the EPHL two seasons ago.
Kirschner, whose 40 points came in only 17 games with Danbury, said that for much of the season, the Whalers failed to get many shots on the Aviators. That trend changed in the last meeting and the result was a win for Kirschner and his teammates. He said that the Aviators need to key on defending against New York and that the rest would fall into place.
“As long as we play well defensively, the offense will come through,” he said.
As for the overall mindset of the Whalers, Kirschner said that they are more than ready to reverse their regular season fortunes against the Aviators.
“The guys are starting to take care of themselves, getting enough rest and preparing mentally,” he said. “We’ve had enough of losing to them. We’re ready to beat them.”
Meanwhile, the New York Aviators are also preparing for the first round series.
Aviators head coach and team president Rob Miller didn’t put a whole lot of stock in his team’s loss in Danbury that ended their 21-game winning streak. He said that despite the 4-1 loss, his team is ready to return to its winning ways against the Whalers.
“We went up there on short notice (because of scheduling changes). We really didn’t play that well,” Miller said. “It just makes us more
New York coach Rob Miller behind the bench (Photo courtesy of FHL/New York Aviators)
The best-of-five Commissioner’s Cup semifinal series begins with two games this weekend at the Aviator Sports and Events Center at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn. The series will then move to Danbury for game three on Friday, March 11th. If necessary, game four will be in Danbury on Saturday, March 12th with a potential winner-take-all game five scheduled for Sunday, March 13th back in Brooklyn.
Miller is no stranger to winning championships. He was a member of the Southern Professional Hockey League’s Knoxville Ice Bears who won the President’s Cup title following the 2005-2006 season. He knows what it takes to win in the playoffs and is imparting that knowledge on his players.
“You simplify everything, especially in the defensive zone because if the puck’s out of our end in the playoffs, they’re not going to score,” Miller said. “There can’t be turnovers inside their blue line because the transition game with these good teams that have good forwards is a killer.”
During the final week of the regular season, Miller admitted that daily practices were constructive but not as intense as normal. He said that the sessions heading into the playoffs would have a much different tenor.
“Practice will be a little bit different before (the) playoffs, a little bit more intense at the beginning of the week, doing a couple of different drills to make sure everyone knows exactly what I want them to do,” he said. “Just little drills on the things I said before -on getting the puck out (of the defensive zone), getting the puck in (to the offensive zone), making sure we have guys in the right position if we turn the puck over. Same kind of stuff I do all the time, just reiterated a lot more.”
Through the regular season, Danbury and New York scored about the same number of goals (186-184 in favor of New York) but the Aviators gave up 41 fewer goals. The Aviators were 22-1-1 at home
New York goalie Kevin Druce (Photo courtesy of FHL/New York Aviators)
New York’s offense was paced for much of the season by veteran winger Matt Puntureri. Puntureri, who was named to the All-FHL team earlier this week, led the Aviators in goals (27), assists (40), points (67), power play points (18 with seven goals), game-winning goals (7), shots on goal (170, tied with Andrew Scampoli) and plus-minus rating (plus-29, tied with Michael Thomson). His 67 points tied him with Thousand Islands’ Tyler Fernandez for third in the league scoring race.
Puntureri isn’t the only New York player who is hot going into the post-season. John Goffredo (24-27-51, plus-14) has 17 power play points and two short-handed goals to his credit. Scampoli (20-32-52, plus-17) has four game-winning goals on his record. Jesse Felten (21-26-47, plus-17, 5 game-winning goals) and Casey Mignone (20-26-46, plus-17) have also been clutch down the stretch.
Goffredo has been especially good of late, having netted a hat trick against Cape Cod on February 18th in a 4-1 Aviators win.
“He’s (Goffredo) been playing great,” Miller said. “The opportunities he gets, he scores.”
New York also has two of the better defensemen in the FHL patrolling the blue line in Jarrett Rush (1-16-17, plus-21) and Nicholas Kuqali (1-13-14, plus-20). Rush joined teammates Puntureri and Kevin Druce on the All-FHL team for his outstanding play.
Both Rush an Kuqali are looking forward to playing in their first professional playoff series. Kuqali said the team’s slow start and fast finish should put them in a good position when the puck is dropped for game one.
“It should be really interesting. It’s good that we’ve had little periods here and there where we’ve played not so well and we’ve overcome it,” Kuqali said. “You don’t want to San Jose Shark it and be out (in) the first round.”
Then there is Druce. His play in the net for the Aviators (24-8-2, 2.51 goals against average) has allowed the team to play aggressively on offense knowing that they have a virtual brick wall between the pipes.
Miller is cautiously optimistic about his team’s chances for bringing a title to Brooklyn.
“I do have my concerns but I think the guys should pull together and they know what they have to do,” Miller said. “We went from last place to first place in three, four months so give credit to the guys.”
Editor’s Pick: These teams know each other very well, maybe too well. Both can put the puck in the net. Both can play defense. Special teams are about as even as you can get. It is however hard to ignore Druce in net and the Aviators’ run in the second half of the season. New York has home ice and lots of confidence. Our pick is New York in four games. Contact the authors at susan.erichsen@prohockeynews.com and marc.spitzer@prohockeynews.com
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