Whalers punch ticket to FHL finals

ALEXANDRIA BAY, NY – The six-hour drive may have been a long one but for the Danbury Whalers, it was well worth the trip.
Following a late Friday game in Danbury Ice Arena that saw the Whalers overcome the 1000 Islands Privateers 4-3 to take a 1-0 series lead, Danbury closed out the Privateers with a convincing 7-1 victory at the Bonnie Castle Rec Center. With the sweep of the best-of-three series complete, the Whalers will now face the New Jersey Outlaws in the Commissioner’s Cup finals. The best-of-seven series is set to begin Tuesday.
After the long drive for the teams from Danbury to Alexandria Bay, both teams approached the game very weary. The first period began with a strong offense from the Whalers scoring early at 2:54 as Chris Seifert scored a beautiful top shelf shot. The period was punctuated with brief flurries of Privateers offense but the Whalers strong defensive play turned what little momentum 1000 Islands had around. The pressure culminated with Matt Moffat scoring at 15:21 from James Sanford and Kelly Miller. Penalties throughout the game to both sides were negligible as both sides were unable to convert on a total of 11 total power plays, including a brief Whalers 5-on-3 advantage.
During the second period, the Privateers came out strong as Brendan Baumgartner cut the Whalers lead in half from Britt Ouellette and Peter Drikos. Danbury’s Martin Moucha then slowed the Privateers momentum as he took away the puck in the offensive zone and buried it top shelf over goalie Matt Anthony’s right shoulder. The floodgates soon opened as two minutes later, Nick Deschenes scored from Alex Goupil and Chris Clark at 7:04 and Moffat potted another at 13:38 from James Sanford, literally sucking all of the air out of the building.
With a 5-1 deficit headed into the third period, the 1000 Islands Privateers came out strong and began to grind the Whalers with physical play, however it was not enough to stymie the big guns of the Whalers as again Moucha skated on net and with a smooth forehand to backhand deke shunted the puck past Anthony giving the Whalers a 6-1 lead. Less than a minute later, Miller scored from Adam Houli to put the proverbial nail in the coffin of the Privateers season at 5:12.
The standout note of the game was the atmosphere in the building as both Privateers and Whalers fans engaged each other in back and forth chanting and jests, giving the game a much more intense feel than the scoreboard told.