BROOKLYN, NY – With Carter Trevisani and Pierre Dagenais returning to the lineup for the FHL Commissioner’s Cup Finals, the Akwesasne Warriors felt they would have quite an advantage over the New York Aviators. It didn’t take long for that advantage to come into play.
Saturday night at the Aviator Sports and Entertainment Complex, Trevisani scored his first post-season goal and Dagenais had the game-winner as
Akwesasne%27s Pierre Dagenais had the gam-winning goal Saturday night. (PHN photo by Wendy Hull)
Coming into the series opener, Akwesasne had not played a game in two weeks, causing observers to wonder if the Warriors would show any rust from the layoff. That was not the case as they stormed the New York end from the opening face-off. Just 29 seconds in, Miguel Delisle sent teammate Dan Tessier in across the Aviators blue line. Using defenseman Nicholas Kuqali as a screen, Tessier unleashed a wicked shot that surprised New York goalie Kevin Druce, beating him to the upper corner for the contest’s first score and Tessier‘s league-leading sixth post-season goal. A subsequent Aviators penalty gave the visitors a man advantage opportunity that continued the pressure. Druce regained his composure and held the fort, making a sparkling save on a one-timer from the bottom of the far circle off of the stick of Dagenais to keep it a one-goal game.
Buoyed by Druce’s work and the successful penalty kill, the Aviators found their game legs. An extended period of pressure in the Akwesasne defensive zone led to a Nick Grove shot that was stopped by Warriors’ net minder David Plouffe. The rebound came out into the slot where Casey Mignone, a healthy scratch in game five of the semifinal series against Danbury, jumped on the puck and through a sea of players fired a backhander that beat Plouffe at the 4:38 mark to tie the score.
A minute after the Mignone tally, Dagenais took a holding penalty to give New York the power play. It took just seven seconds for the Aviators to take advantage as Michael Thomson made a cross-crease pass to Matt Puntureri who buried it in the back of the net, giving the home team the lead and delighting the Aviators fans in the stands. The Warriors then took two more penalties, allowing New York to gain momentum. On the second call, the Aviators cashed in just ten seconds after the face-off as Thomson once again set the table, this time for Andrew Scampoli who put the puck past Plouffe to increase the New York lead to 3-1 where it stayed for the rest of the period.
The second period was a study in frustration for the Aviators. They controlled play for the first half of the period, peppering Plouffe with nine shots, many of them testers. Plouffe came up big every time, keeping the Warriors within earshot of the high-flying New Yorkers. In that same period of time, Akwesasne could only muster three shots on Druce, who was his usual rock-solid self.
Then with just under five minutes left in the middle stanza, the tide turned thanks to former Italian Olympic team member Trevisani. During a foray into the Aviators end, Tessier drove the near side and saw Trevisani, just back from playing with Valpellice Bulldogs in Italy, cruising in from the top of the slot. Tessier got the puck to his teammate and Trevisani sailed in on net, beating Druce from a sharp angle to cut the lead to 3-2. The goal seemed to wake up the Akwesasne offense as they dominated the final moments of the period but failed to dent Druce’s armor again.
Akwesasne head coach Angelo Sanseverino lauded Plouffe’s work keeping the Warriors in the game as a big factor in the outcome.
“He played very well,” Sanseverino said of Plouffe.
Trailing 3-2 as the third period started, the Warriors needed to mount a charge if they were going to steal the win on the road. They pinned the Aviators on their side of the red line, working the puck along the outside and pressuring the New York defense without getting any shots on net. At the 2:09 mark, the hard work paid off as Martin Beaulne was able to get the puck to Ahmed Mahfouz and the FHL’s Rookie of the Year beat Druce to tie the score at 3-3.
Less than a minute after the goal by Mahfouz, Akwesasne was given a chance to roll out the power play once again when Grove was sent off for roughing. Blanked up to that point by New York’s penalty killers, the Warriors finally were able to cash in when Patrick Deraspe set up one-time Montreal Canadian forward Dagenais for his first goal in an Akwesasne uniform since December to put the Warriors in front to stay.
Sensing the game and home ice advantage slipping away from them, the Aviators began to ramp up the tempo, trying to force the visitors into a fatal error. Even with two power play chances, New York was not able to find a way to beat Plouffe. The Warriors had two man-advantage opportunities of their own but failed to extend the lead as Druce kept them off the scoreboard.
The Aviators’ final chance to force overtime unraveled in the final 90 seconds, thanks to a miscommunication on the ice. Head Coach Rob Miller had waived Druce to the bench in favor of an extra attacker. As Druce headed off and his replacement hopped on, the Warriors sent the puck toward the New York end in Druce‘s direction. Instinctively, Druce stopped to keep the puck from going in deep but with the extra attacker out already, the Aviators were called for too many men on the ice. Akwesasne used that final throw-away power play to hem the Aviators in their defensive zone and running out the clock.
After the game, Sanseverino said he didn’t think his team’s come-from-behind win would give any advantage on Sunday.
“Tomorrow (Sunday) is game one again for me,” he said.
Game Notes: Terry Watt, Alain Quenneville, Maths Johansson and Kiawentonteh Swamp were scratched from the Akwesasne lineup by Sanseverino while Warren Galloway, Joseph Pelle Jr., Jon Madsen and Anthony Long sat out for Miller’s Aviators…Plouffe stopped 27 of the 30 shots he faced to earn the win while Druce made 20 saves on 24 shots in suffering the loss…The battle of the special teams went to the penalty killers as Akwesasne was 1-for-6 with the man advantage while New York was 2-for-7…Warriors’ defenseman Chad Bazin went to the penalty box four times and still managed to post a plus-1 rating for the game…Attendance at the Aviator was announced as 837.
Contact the author at wendy.hull@prohockeynews.com
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