WATERTOWN, NY – It was another busy week around the FHL as all the teams hit the ice as the second half of the season is in full swing.
Sunday saw a couple of big matinee games. First the top two teams in the league met in Danbury, CT as the Whalers hosted the Watertown Wolves. Even the snow and bad weather, that caused a half hour game delay, couldn’t cool down the red-hot Wolves who skated away with a big 7-2 victory and first place in the FHL. The Wolves were lead by FHL scoring leader Justin McDonald’s hat trick and Captain Lucas LaBelle added a pair of goals. Danbury’s Ryan Patsch netted two goals and Ilya Solarev picked up two assists in the loss. 
The 2nd FHL matinee saw the 4th & 5th place teams meeting in Berkshire, MA. The Battalion jumped out early and through the 2nd intermission lead the Danville Dashers 3-2. The 3rd period belonged to Andrew Harrison (DAS) as he 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 Predergast, Robert Morton and Martin Uhnak.
Monday’s lone game turned into a lopsided affair early. The Dayton Demonz’s Mark Rivera picked up a natural hat trick in the 1st period as the Demonz cruised to a 9-1 win over the Steel City Warriors. Rivera finished with 4 goals and an assist and 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 lead Berkshire with 3 goals while Martin Uhnak and Vadim Guskov each added 2 goals and 1 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 2 goals and an assist in the loss which was Danbury’s 2nd straight.
Friday night saw a rematch of a Sunday matinee 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 1st period and Mike Brown shut down the Wolves potent offense. That is until late in the 3rd period, the Wolves pulled St. Pierre for the extra attacker and it paid off. With just :32 seconds left Dustin Henning beat Brown tying the game and sending it into OT. Both teams had chances but came up short in the OT and it was on to the shoot-out. Ian Delong (Dan) and Phil Bronner (Wat) 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 Lucas LaBelle (Wat) who snuck his shot through Mike Brown’s pads and gave the Wolves a 2-1 victory.
The other Friday night game 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 2nd straight road win of the week with a 3-2 win. Berkshire was lead by Robert Morton’s 2 goals but it was Jeff Sanders netting the Game Winner. Ahmed Mahfouz lead Dayton with 1 goal and 1 assist.
Saturday night there was a full slate of games in the FHL. 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. In doing so they cruised to their second win of the week 6-2, handing the Whalers their 4th straight loss and giving the Demonz sole possession of second place in the FHL. Dayton’s Jared Hicks had a 4 point night (4g, 1a) 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 1st period. The Wolves would tied it up with less than a minute left in the first and it would stay like that until the 3rd period. Cody Dion scored a pair of goals to give the Wolves a 3-1 lead early on in the 3rd. The Battalion held strong and Michael Kaselouskas & Martin Uhnak would each score and tie things up at 3-3. With a little over a minute in the game Phil Bronner was awarded a penalty shot but was stoned by Battalion goalie Stephen Messina. Bronner was not going to be denied though, with 46 seconds left he poked one by Messina 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.
Stat Chat – The FHL’s leading scorer Justin McDonald (WAT) now has 38 G 43 A for 81 PTS in 36 games this season. He leads the number scorers by 20 points. In the pipes Mike Brown (DAN) is 18-9-2 with a 2.83 GAA in 30 games & Jo St. Pierre (WAT) is 16-3-1 with a 2.84 GAA in 23 games.
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