Aviators, Whalers set to renew playoff pleasantries

BROOKLYN – One would be hard pressed to find a bigger rivalry in the FHL than the one between the Danbury Whalers and the Brooklyn Aviators. After a hard-fought playoff series last year that saw the Aviators win in five games, the teams split their ten regular season match-ups this season. All of that history will be forgotten starting Friday night when the two teams meet in the opening round of the 2012 FHL Commissioner’s Cup playoffs.
Following a dominant 2010-2011 regular season highlighted by a 20-plus game winning streak, the Aviators found themselves in fourth place for most of the 2011-2012 campaign. As a result, they will be a slight underdog against the third-seeded Whalers. Home ice for the best-of-three round went to Danbury by a slim seven points.
“We know each other pretty well,” Aviators head coach Rob Miller said about his squad and the Whalers. “They have a couple of good guys and we’ve both lost some of our guys to call-ups. You get to know them. I know a lot of guys on the team so we’re kind of used to it. You know what they’re going to do so you try and coach against them in a proper way.”
The teams finished 5-5 against each other this season with Brooklyn taking the first meeting by a score of 8-1. Danbury took the next two match-ups before the Aviators responded by winning three of the next four. The Whalers then won the next two games with the latter tilt coming in the final week of the season as Danbury used a four-goal second period to top the Aviators 5-2.
Last Friday, in the tenth and final meeting, pride and posturing were on display in Brooklyn. The Aviators came out firing as they chased Whalers’ goalie Peter Vetri from the game after two periods on the way to a 7-1 rout.
“It was big to get that win and to set a presence going into the first round against them,” Aviators leading scorer Jesse Felten said. “All the guys knew it and all the guys were rolling and just on fire. It was good to see everyone just click.”
Michael Thomson, who recorded a natural hat trick in the 7-1 win, agreed with Felten’s assessment of his team‘s performance and the importance of the lopsided win.
“We took a period off (in the last game) and they scored four goals and that was the difference,” Thomson said. “We outplayed them for most of the game so it was just one of those things. We knew we had to play a full 60 minutes and we’d be fine. To do that against that team and know you can do it after we lost to them the last two times is big and now the last remaining memory of them is us winning 7-1.”
Felten (27 goals, 27 assists, 54 points, plus-12 rating) was the only Aviator to reach the 50-point plateau but several of his teammates were in the ballpark. Casey Mignone (18-22-40) and rookie defenseman Ken Trentowski (6-30-36) got close as did rookie forward Andrew Owsiak (19-26-45). Unfortunately, Head Coach Rob Miller was forced to put Owsiak on the injured list on Wednesday, eliminating a top sniper from his lineup. Thomson (9-13-22 in 16 games) will have to pick up some of the slack as will Andrew Scampoli (6-22-28), Jason Dolgy (13-21-34) and Lucas Schott (14-13-27).
Despite the series being tied at five wins apiece, Brooklyn outscored Danbury 43-30 in the ten meetings. Six of the contests were decided by three or more goals, meaning that the Aviators’ hopes will lay on the shoulders of goalie Josselin St. Pierre. St. Pierre had a huge game in that last Brooklyn win over the Whalers, stopping 31 of the 32 shots he faced. In 25 games, he posted a 12-9-2 record with a 3.35 goals against average and a .903 save percentage. If Brooklyn is to advance, it will no doubt be because of a strong effort between the pipes from its number one netminder.
“(Coming into this season) I didn’t think I’d play hockey at all,” St. Pierre said. “Coming in here and seeing they have confidence in me means a lot. Hopefully I can help bring a championship to New York.”
If history is to not be repeated, the Danbury Whalers need to bypass the penalty box and stick to disciplined hockey in order to triumph in the best-of-three opening series against Brooklyn.
Whalers Head Coach Phil Esposito has been filling holes in his roster all season, having answered 40 call-ups to the ECHL, SPHL and AHL in 2011-2012. Defensive talent was sparse across the FHL and especially in Danbury as Esposito lost Chris Clark, Stephen Mallaro and Kelly Miller to call-ups and Adam Blanchette and Paul Arnott to season-ending concussions.
Considering his ever-changing roster, Esposito said he was pleased with his team’s third place finish in the regular season, posting a 28-win season while amassing 89 points. His efforts to prepare his players to move up earned him a special recognition award from the FHL.
“My first commitment was to my players and to develop them to get them to where they needed to be,” he said.
Esposito has a great deal of confidence in his front line players with forwards Matt Moffat (17 goals, 42 assists, 49 points, plus-24 rating), Greg Holt (15-31-46), Chris Seifert (21-21-42), Sean O’Malley (20-22-42), Nick Deschenes (8-23-31), Devin Guy (12-14-26) and Matt Caranci (10-15-25). He is hoping that Martin Moucha (5-20-25) will return from a call-up to the ECHL Wheeling Nailers and that Patrick Deraspe (2-10-12 in 16 games), who was claimed off waivers from Akwesasne last week, to give some veteran support.
“No one can match our fire power,” Esposito said.
While he hopes to have the veterans return for at least the first two games of round one, Esposito has been preparing his younger defensemen, Nikolas Temple and James Kirkwood, to step up.
“It’s time to see if they are ready to handle the pressure and not turn pucks over,” he said about his young blue liners.
Nailing down the power play was an onerous task for Esposito because he was essentially starting from scratch every week depending on which players were available. It also didn’t help that his team spent 1,432 minutes in the penalty box itself. He said that his team has a bulls-eye on its back, admitting that it could stem from his vocal coaching style and forward Corey Fulton’s reputation with 220 penalty minutes. The Whalers’ special teams struggled, ending the season fifth in the league on the power play with a 16.81 percent success rate while the penalty killing units finished sixth with a 78.66 percent kill rate.
The Whalers are banking on the return of veteran blue liners from call-ups and the playoff experience of one-time AHL defenseman James Sanford (8-23-31) to solidify the power play. Esposito said that he fully expects that it will play a decisive part in advancing to the next round.
“”We cannot get into a situation where we are short-handed,” Esposito said. “We must be 100 percent disciplined against Brooklyn.”
The other big key to Danbury’s post-season strategy is FHL Rookie of the Year and All-Rookie team goalie Peter Vetri. Vetri went 21-13-0-1 this season with a 3.28 goals against average and .919 save percentage. Esposito has the utmost confidence in his starting netminder’s game sense and ability to control play. He said that Vetri was the backbone to Danbury’s success through all of the fluctuations in the roster.
“He (Vetri) is the reason why we won some of the games that we had no business winning,” Esposito said.
One issue that Danbury has had against Brooklyn has been slow starts. The Whalers have had a string of low-scoring first periods against the Aviators. Vetri noted that Brooklyn is a fast, disciplined, puck pursuit team that comes out of the gates strong in the opening stanza. Much like his coach, Vetri is concerned about special teams play, especially Brooklyn’s power play and the prospect of the Aviators short-handed scoring capability.
“We need to come out to play at the first puck drop. We need to raise our compete level and win the one-on-one battles in front of the net,” Vetri said. “The bottom line is that Brooklyn has an unbelievable power play. Our big thing is to stay out of the box.”
Editor’s Pick: These two franchises know each other as a set of brothers do. With the constant changing of the roster, Esposito’s Whalers may be at a disadvantage based on a chemistry factor. Still, the Aviators will be without Owsiak which could hurt their offense. Based on better continuity, the Aviators take this series in three games.
Contact the authors at dan.sicignano@prohockeynews.com and susan.erichsen@prohockeynews.com