Danbury fends off River Drivers 4-3

DANBURY, CT — Mike Henderson scored twice and Anthony Pisano added one of his own to lead the Danbury Titans to a 4-3 victory over the Berlin RiverDrivers Thursday night. Alex Vazzano recorded his 7th win of the year, while Berlin’s Ryan Donovan made 52 saves in the losing effort.

More new faces for the Titans made their debut in front of the home crowd, though for some it was more of a homecoming. Anthony Pisano and Ian Delong were both acquired by the Titans earlier in the week; Pisano was signed from Manchester of the ECHL, while Delong was acquired from Brewster in exchange for Breton Lindoff and Kory Helowka. Also making their FHL debut were Martin Tuma and Razmuz Waxin-Engback. Tuma, a defenseman, was drafted by the Florida Panthers in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft, while Waxin-Engback returned to North America after playing for Vallentuna BK of Sweden’s Division 1.

Mike Henderson would record the only goal of the first period at the 15:45 mark, assisted by Dean Yakura and Jarrett Rush. Berlin would jump out to an early 4-1 advantage in shots before Danbury would prevent Berlin from recording a shot on goal after the ten minute mark. The Titans outshot the RiverDrivers 18-5.

Pisano would make his presence felt in a different way as he scored his first goal since the 2011-12 season with the Danbury Whalers on their championship run. The wrist shot was wired from his stick and past the glove of a screened Ryan Donovon. Jason Berube and Kyle Powell would get the assists, and it was Powell’s first professional point. Tyler Gjurich would extend his 18 game scoring streak with a goal less than 3 minutes later. For Gjurich, it gives him points in 19 straight games, tying a season high streak shared with linemate John Scorcia. Gjurich also continues to lead all FHL players in scoring, now with 45 on the season.

Berlin would come back to make things interesting in the third. Jiri Pestuka stripped Brett Liscomb at his own blue line and rang a shot off the crossbar and in to spoil Vazzano’s hope for a shutout. Henderson would score his second of the game to make it 4-2, but the RiverDrivers were able to respond again. First, Cameron Yarwood would find the net, and then recently acquired Marcus Mitchell would pull Berlin within one. The comeback was not to be, in spite of a power play Berlin had to end the game.