WAYNE, NJ – The Danbury Whalers had hopes to be going home with a chance to win the FHL Commissioner’s Cup in front of their faithful fans at the Danbury Ice Arena next weekend. Instead they will be fighting to keep the New Jersey Outlaws from skating with the trophy.
Riding the solid goaltending of Dan McWhinney and two goals from John Goffredo, the Outlaws defeated the Whalers 5-1 Sunday afternoon in game two of the best-of-five championship series at the Ice Vault in Wayne. New Jersey will try to sweep the series Friday night when the teams meet in Danbury in game three.
Playing for the second time in less than 24 hours, the teams took turns pushing tempo in the early minutes. Danbury netminder Peter Vetri was the busier of the two goalies, making six stops. The first big break of the contest came with just over seven minutes left in the period when the Whalers took two penalties in a span of 24 seconds, giving the Outlaws a two-man advantage. New Jersey took advantage with Matt Miller scoring his fourth goal of the series off of assists from Anthony Battaglia and Travis Kauffeldt.
Miller’s tally was the only one of the opening period as Vetri knocked away 18 of the 19 Outlaws shots, proving why he was named FHL Rookie of the Year. Down the other end, New Jersey netminder Dan McWhinney turned back all nine Danbury shots he saw to send his team to the intermission ahead by one.
The visitors pulled even early in the second when Vetri moved the puck to Kelly Miller who fed Adam Houli who beat McWhinney just 2:25 into the middle frame. It started a stretch of almost five minutes where the Whalers took the momentum away from the Outlaws. That momentum was broken when Kauffeldt carried the puck into the Danbury end, drawing the defense toward him. At the right moment, he fed teammate Jeff Winchester, who had jumped up into the rush from his defensive post, and the league MVP found the back of the net to put the Outlaws ahead to stay.
New Jersey went for the kill over the next eight minutes, out-shooting Danbury 6-1 during the span, but Vetri was equal to the challenge. The Whalers picked up their offense in the latter stages, putting six shots on McWhinney in the final two minutes but the veteran goalie stopped every one of them.
The Outlaws stretched the lead to two goals just 30 seconds into the final period when Kauffeldt, who picked up four assists in the game, fed Goffredo who beat Vetri to give New Jersey a little breathing room. Danbury had two chances to get back into the contest via power play opportunities but they failed to connect. The second failure turned into a bigger disaster when Kauffeldt sent Kevin Cooper away on a short-handed breakaway. Cooper scored on the breakout to put the Outlaws up 4-1 with 7:09 left in regulation.
Just as Cooper was lighting the lamp, Danbury’s Miller, who had been having a game-long feud with New Jersey defenseman Billy McCreary, took a chop at McCreary’s knees with his stick and added a cross check to another Outlaw for good measure. The referees hit Miller with a cross-checking minor, a slashing major and a game misconduct. Goffredo netting his second of the game during the subsequent New Jersey power play to close out the scoring.
Game Notes: In picking up his second win of the series, McWhinney stopped 32 of the 33 shots he faced. Vetri again played well, making 35 saves on 40 shots, but suffered the loss…The Whalers were shutout on the power play, going 0-for-3 while New Jersey went 2-for-6…Kauffeldt’s four assists give him five in the series. He was named the game’s first star with Winchester getting second star and Goffredo picking up the third star…Danbury will most likely be without Kelly Miller on Friday because of his slashing major and game misconduct which the league’s post-game press release said carries an automatic one game suspension.

Danbury forward Alex Goupil wore the captain%27s %22C%22 for Sunday%27s game.

New Jersey%27s Matt Miller (20%2C black) scores the game%27s opening goal.

Whaler Adam Houli (20%2C white) slips the puck past New Jersey goalie Dan McWhinney to tie the game at 1-1.

Danbury coach Phil Esposito reacts to New Jersey%27s seven-minute power play in the third period.

Outlaws forward John Goffredo beats Danbury goalie Peter Vetri to make it 5-1.

WAYNE, NJ – It may have been ten days in between games but the New Jersey Outlaws proved after a slow start that they remembered how to score goals.
Led by a three goal, one assist effort from forward Matt Miller, the top seeded Outlaws trounced the Danbury Whalers 7-2 in game one of the FHL’s Commissioner’s Cup finals Saturday night at the Ice Vault. The teams turn right around Sunday as game two of the best-of-five series will be played today at 4:35 p.m. in Wayne.
Having played five playoff games against two tough opponents (Brooklyn and Thousand Islands), the Whalers had plenty of confidence coming into the series. They also knew that if they had any chance to bring the trophy to Danbury, they would have to steal a game on the road. With about 200 fans making the trip south, the Whalers certainly felt like they had a bit of a “home ice advantage” behind them.
The visitors came out determined to make their fans happy, outplaying the Outlaws in the first six minutes. The Whalers took advantage of an early New Jersey penalty to open the scoring when Greg Holt set up Matt Moffat who beat New Jersey goalie Dan McWhinney for a power play goal.
Out-shot 10-3 over the first half of the first period, the Outlaws finally found their game legs, evening the score at the 10:14 mark when Miller picked up his first of the game with the helpers going to Anthony Battaglia and Luke Flicek. The goal seemed to calm down the Outlaws’ nerves, allowing them to gain momentum with each passing minute.
The shift in control of the game became evident as the period got to six minutes remaining. Just three ticks past that mark, Trevor Karasiewicz set up Miller who beat Whalers netminder Peter Vetri for his second of the game. Just under 30 seconds later, Brett Angel lit the goal light to give New Jersey a 3-1 lead that they took to the first intermission.
Armed with its high-powered offense and McWhinney building a wall in front of his net, the Outlaws turned up the heat in the second. Less than five minutes in, Brett Liscomb notched New Jersey’s fourth goal of the contest. Three minutes later, with the Outlaws killing a penalty, Kevin Cooper scored a short-handed goal on Vetri to increase the lead to 5-1. Late in the period, John Goffredo added to the margin with his first goal of the post season. By the end of the period, New Jersey had out-shot Danbury 21-14 and held a 6-1 lead.
Danbury coach Phil Esposito swapped out Vetri for Joey Spagnoli, hoping it would spark his troops. Using two Outlaws penalties as a springboard, the Whalers bombarded McWhinney with seven shots in less than three minutes but the former SPHL playoff MVP turned every one of them away. Miller completed his hat trick, beating Spagnoli for the seventh and final New Jersey tally. Danbury’s Kelly Miller scored 1:40 later as he solved the seemingly impenetrable McWhinney. The Whalers had 22 shots in the final period but with only one finding the back of the net, they were left looking for answers heading for game two.
Game Notes: For the game, Danbury out-shot New Jersey 51-43…The Outlaws were shutout on the power play, going 0-for-6 while the Whalers went 1-for-12…New Jersey could be playing game two or more without defenseman Lawne Snyder. Snyder was hit with a double minor and game misconduct for butt-ending Whaler Martin Moucha. The series will shift to Danbury for games and four (if necessary) starting next Friday.

Danbury%27s Matt Moffat gets the puck in front of goalie Dan McWhinney just before his game-opening goal.

Whalers goalie Petri can only watch as Brett Angel%27s shot beats him for the Outlaws sixth goal.

New Jersey defenseman Billy McCreary (15%2C black) earned a double minor for hitting Whaler Chris Seifert (83%2C white) while Jason Reese (16%2C black) hold Seifert.

Joey Spagnoli relieved Vetri in the Danbury net for the final period.

New Jersey%27s Matt Miller notched a hat trick to lead the Outlaws to a game one victory.