Outlaws one win away from title

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.