WATERTOWN, NY – It was another busy week around the FHL as all the teams hit the ice with the second half of the season in full swing.
Sunday,
January 18 saw a couple of big matinee games. First the top two teams in the league met in Danbury as the Whalers hosted the Watertown Wolves. Even the snow and bad weather which caused a half hour game delay could not cool down the red-hot Wolves who skated away with a big 7-2 victory and first place in the FHL. The Wolves were led by FHL scoring leader Justin McDonald’s hat trick and captain Lucas LaBelle’s pair of goals. Danbury’s Ryan Patsch netted 2 goals and Ilya Solarev picked up 2 assists in the loss.
The second FHL matinee saw the fourth and fifth place teams meeting in North Adams. The Battalion jumped out early and through the second intermission led the Danville Dashers 3-2. The third period belonged to Danville’s Andrew Harrison who picked up a natural hat trick and erased the Dashers deficit, leading Danville to a come from behind 5-3 victory. Berkshire got goals from Tyler Prendergast, Robert Morton and Martin Uhnak.
Monday’s lone game turned into a lopsided affair early. The Dayton Demonz’ Mark Rivera picked up a natural hat trick in the first period as the Demonz cruised to a 9-1 win over the Steel City Warriors. Rivera finished with four goals and an assist while Lester Brown netted two goals in the Dayton win. Steel City’s John Scully scored their lone goal in the loss and broke up the shut out with 1:21 left in the game.
Thursday night the Danbury Whalers hosted the Berkshire Battalion in what turned into a high scoring affair. Michael Dolman led Berkshire with three goals while Martin Uhnak and Vadim Guskov each added two goals and one assist in the Battalion’s 10-7 win. Mike Pearless made his first FHL start for the Whalers but the Battalion didn’t take any mercy on him. Danbury’s Ian DeLong picked up two goals and an assist in Danbury’s second straight loss.
Friday night saw a rematch of one of Sunday’s matinee contests but this time in Watertown’s barn as the Danbury Whalers looked for some revenge. It looked like they might get it as Ryan Devine snuck a shot past Jo St. Pierre in the first period and Mike Brown shut down the Wolves potent offense. Late in the third period, the Wolves pulled St. Pierre for an extra attacker and it paid off. With just 32 seconds left in regulation, Dustin Henning beat Brown to tie the game and send it into overtime. Both teams had chances but came up short in the extra period and it was on to the shoot-out. Danbury’s Ian DeLong and Watertown’s Phil Bronner each scored in the first round. After both teams traded misses and goals it came down to the final shot. That shot was taken by the Wolves’ Lucas LaBelle who snuck the puck through Brown’s pads to give the Wolves the 2-1 victory.
The other Friday night contest was a hard fought battle as the Berkshire Battalion traveled to take on the defending FHL champion Dayton Demonz. Dayton got on the board early in front of the home crowd but the Battalion skated to their second straight road win of the week by a final of 3-2. Berkshire was led by Robert Morton’s two goals but it was Jeff Sanders who netted the game winner. Ahmed Mahfouz led Dayton with one goal and one assist.
Saturday night provided a full slate of games. The Dayton Demonz were on the road in Danbury looking to rebound from Friday’s loss and break away from a second place tie with the Whalers in the standings. Dayton cruised to its second win of the week by a final of 6-2, handing the Whalers their fourth straight loss. Dayton’s Jared Hicks had a four point night with a hat trick and one assist while goalie Matt Kinsella notched 31 saves. Danbury’s Mickey Knox picked up a goal and an assist in the loss.
The Watertown Wolves hosted the Berkshire Battalion as both teams looked for their third win of the week. It looked to be a repeat for the Wolves as Berkshire’s Robert Morton scored early in the first period. The Wolves would tie it up with less than a minute left in the first and it would stay that way until the third period. Cody Dion scored a pair of goals to give the Wolves a 3-1 lead early on before the Battalion answered back with scores by Michael Kaselouskas and Martin Uhnak to tie things up at 3-3. With a little over a minute remaining in regulation, Phil Bronner was awarded a penalty shot but was stoned by Battalion goalie Stephen Messina. Bronner was not going to be denied though, poking the puck past Messina with 46 second left for the game-winning goal giving the Wolves a 4-3 win.
In the final matchup on Saturday night, the Danville Dashers defeated the Steel City Warriors 8-3. Wehebe Darge led the visiting Dashers with two goal and three assists while teammate Andrew Harrison continued his strong week with a score and three assists. Dennis Semenov, Zach Tatrn and MJ Graham each posted a goal and an assists for the Warriors.
Stat Chat: The FHL’s leading scorer, Watertown’s Justin McDonald, now has 38 goals and 43 assists for 81 points in 36 games this season. He leads all scorers by 20 points…In between the pipes, Danbury’s Mike Brown is 18-9-2 with a 2.83 goals against average in 30 games while Watertown’s Jo St. Pierre is 16-3-1 with a 2.84 GAA in 23 games.
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