WAYNE, NJ – Call it a battle between last year’s top dog and this year’s new kids on the top of the hill – and the new guys showed the old dog some new tricks. The first place New Jersey Outlaws took on the defending FHL champion Akwesasne Warriors for the first time Saturday night at the Ice Vault. By the time the final horn sounded, the expansion Outlaws had wrangled themselves a convincing 7-2 victory for their 12th straight win. They were paced by the twin two-goal nights of Nathan Oke and Anthony Battaglia.
New Jersey got on the board first in the first period when Jason Reese scored his first goal as an Outlaw just 1:36 in. The lead lasted all of six minutes before league-leading scorer Pierre Dagenais beat New Jersey goalie Dan McWhinney for his 26th of the season at the 7:29 mark.and then the Warriors tied it. A little more than two minutes later, Battaglia scored his first of the night and second of the season, lighting the lamp behind Warriors netminder David Plouffe just before the midway point of the period. Holding a 2-1 lead as the middle stanza started, New Jersey turned up the heat on Plouffe, pounding 21 shots at the Akwesasne net. The only two goals of the period belonged to Oke. He tallied his first of the game and sixth of the season at 2:47 then added his seventh in 12 games on a power play at 17:56. Down the other end of the ice, McWhinney was steady, stopping all five shots he faced in the period. Battaglia notched his third of the year and second of the game during an Outlaws man advantage 4:43 into the final period to extend the lead to 5-1. Akwesasne’s Sylvain Deschatelets stopped the bleeding for a moment when he scored his seventh of the year but it was too little, too late for the visitors. Tyler Barr (fourth of the year) and Jamie Zaleski (first as a member of the Outlaws) scored the final two goals for the home team.
Notes: Akwesasne was 0-for-5 on the power play while New Jersey went 4-for-13 with the man advantage…For the game, the Outlaws outshot the Warriors 53-29…McWhinney picked up his ninth victory for the Outlaws…Other than a skirmish late in the game, the contest was pretty clean and pretty fast skating and an overall good game…The Outlaws will look for their 13th straight victory at Danbury on Friday, December 16th at 7:35PM. Their next home game will be on Saturday, December 17th when the Whalers visit. The Outlaws will have legendary hockey writer and TV commentator Stan “The Maven” Fischler from MSG as a special guest.
Comment@prohockeynews.com
You must be logged in to post a comment.