AKWESASNE, ONT – At 7:30 Saturday morning, Akwesasne Warriors head coach Angelo Sanseverino was watching video from game three of the FHL Commissioner’s Cup finals against the New York Aviators when his phone rang. It was goalie David Plouffe calling to say that he would guarantee that his play would be better in game four.
Plouffe made good on that promise, stopping 36 of 38 shots to backstop the Warriors to a 5-2 victory and the inaugural FHL championship Saturday at the Anowarako:wa Arena. Pierre Dagenais scored twice for Akwesasne which won the best-of-five series three games to one and earned playoff Most Valuable Player honors in the process.
“He called to guarantee me that he was going to play better and he stepped up tonight,” Sanseverino said of Plouffe. “He was a key to our success.”
Coming off of Friday night’s win, New York wanted to jump on the host Warriors early. When Dagenais took a roughing penalty 55 seconds into the first period, the Aviators had their chance. The Warriors penalty killers allowed just two shots on goaltender David Plouffe, both of which he handled.
The successful penalty kill seemed to jump start Akwesasne’s offense and they began to crank up the skating. In the space of five minutes, they put five shots on New York goalie Kevin Druce, who picked up where he left off from the night before, stoning each opportunity.
With just over eight minutes left in the stanza, the Aviators handed the Warriors a golden chance when defenseman Nicholas Kuqali took a four-minute high 
sticking penalty. Even though they only had three shots during the man advantage, Akwesasne’s pressure led to the game’s opening goal. As the penalty was winding down, Dagenais got the puck at the right point. He faked a shot and slid a pass to Miguel Deraspe who was at the base of the near circle. Deraspe made a move toward the net and when Druce slid over to cover the pose, Deraspe got the puck to Ahmed Mahfouz who directed the puck into the open net.
The goal seemed to open up the skating lanes as the teams began to go up and down the ice at each other. Not many shots came from the faster tempo so the teams went to the locker rooms with Akwesasne up 1-0 after one.
The Aviators started the second period with a holdover power play from the final seconds of the opening stanza. New York failed to get established in the offensive zone as the Warriors were aggressive on the penalty kill. Just seconds after the penalty was over, Akwesasne’s Martin Beaulne sent a clearing pass to center ice where teammate Dan Tessier picked it up. He and Dagenais broke in two-on-one and when Tessier drew the defenseman to him, he fed Dagenais who went five-hole on Druce and beat the net minder to give the Warriors a 2-0 lead.
Once again in danger of losing touch with their hosts, the Aviators needed an answer and got it 1:20 later. Andrew Scampoli sent a neutral ice pass to Jesse Felten who drove into the Akwesasne defensive zone. He deked his way around a sliding defenseman and headed for the net, sending a quick wrist shot over the glove shoulder of Plouffe to slice the lead to 2-1 just 3:29 into the middle period.
Once again, the game sped up. Seconds after the Felten goal, Akwesasne’s Addison Pelkey snapped off a shot that caught the iron behind Druce and bounced away. Then Nick Vandenbeld had an opportunity but just slipped the puck to the outside of the post.
Midway through the period, the Warriors were given a five-on-three man advantage for 1:30. Akwesasne’s high-powered power play turned the New York zone into a shooting gallery, firing shot after shot in the direction of Druce and the net. Like he did during much of the regular season, the New York goalie stopped everything that was thrown at him to keep it a one-goal game. His best save of the sequence may have been the glove stop he made on a drive from the point by Carter Trevisani. Moments after the successful penalty kill, he was called on to thwart a clean break-in by Delisle. Thanks to Druce, the score was just 2-1 in favor of Akwesasne after two.
The Aviators couldn’t afford to give the Warriors any extra chances in the third period but when John Goffredo was called for hooking, Akwesasne got another power play. They methodically moved the puck around and it almost worked twice as Tessier clanked the post and later Mahfouz had a goal waived off when the referee blew the whistle when he lost sight of the puck before the puck crossed the line.
Seconds after the negated score, the Warriors did cash in on the man advantage. They worked the puck to Daniel Sauve at the left point. His low, hard blast was redirected by Delisle past Druce to up the lead to 3-1 just past the five minute mark.
New York was in the hole again but the Aviators never gave up. With Druce playing lights out behind them, they tried to open up the tempo again. The pressure worked at the 8:56 mark when some hard digging by Vandenbeld in the corner led to a shot by Matt Puntureri from close range. Plouffe made the save but Michael Thomson was there to pop the rebound home.
The Aviators kept firing shots when they had the opportunity, hoping that either Plouffe would misplay an angle or he would allow a rebound like he did on the Thomson goal. Plouffe was brilliant and when he needed help, his defense rallied around him. New York coach Rob Miller pulled Druce twice in the late going, leading to empty net goals by Dagenais and Beaulne in the final 1:05 of the contest to round out the scoring and set off the celebration.
In earning the MVP trophy, Dagenais put up gaudy number befitting his status as arguably the best player in the FHL. In just four games during the finals, he tallied seven goals and two assists for nine points. The award could have gone to any one of a number of players as Tessier led the league in post-season scoring with eight goals and nine assists for 17 points in seven total games and no less than four other Warriors had double-digit points in the playoffs.
Then there was Plouffe who out-dueled the FHL’s regular season MVP and top goalie in Druce, posting a 6-2 record with a respectable 3.52 goals against average in eight games against two high scoring teams in Thousand Islands and New York. In nine post-season games, Druce was 4-4-1 with a league-best 3.23 goals against mark.
“I’ve never coached one or two players. This is a team game,” Sanseverino said about his squad which suffered several changes during the season but persevered. “Every guy on this team was a key part of it.”
Game Notes: Attendance for game four was announced as 1,036, giving the Warriors just under 2,000 for the two games on Cornwall Island…Puntureri and Thomson led the Aviators in scoring during the post-season. Each had 15 points…Akwesasne defenseman Daniel Sauve finished the playoffs with 12 points – all of them assists – and a plus-11 rating that tied Tessier for league best…For the series, Akwesasne out-shot New York by an aggregate total of 135 to 125…The power plays didn’t amount to much in the series as the Warriors finished 3-for-21 while the Aviators went 3-for-19…The New York staff hosted a viewing party at the Aviator Sports and Recreation complex for both of the road games.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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