Outlaws rope Danbury in 5-3 win

DANBURY, CT – Two shorthanded goals allowed in the third were enough to decide the Whalers’ fate Friday night in a 5-3 to the New Jersey Outlaws. Six of the eight goals in the game were scored during a power play, three shorthanded. The Outlaws’ won for the 13^th straight time.
 
The Whalers jumped out to a first period lead as Alec Kirschner tallied on the power play. Martin Moucha and Greg Holt assisted on Kirschner’s 17^th of the season at 10:15.
 
New Jersey took the lead in the second as Brett Liscomb and Kevin Cooper scored 1:33 apart early in the period.
 
Danbury tied the game as Kelly Miller scored his 5^th of the season on the man-advantage to tie things at 2. Moucha and Matt Caranci earned the helpers at 2:10.
 
The outlaws penalty killing unit went to work on two Whaler power plays.   Two Whalers power play went awry later in the period, as Liscomb gave New Jersey the lead for good at 8:13.   Cooper scored his second of the game at 13:19.
 
The Whalers got a shorthanded goal of their own as Brett Dickinson and Kirschner fed Greg Holt, who scored on a breakaway with 16 seconds to go and got his 8^th of the season. Danbury tried in desperation to get the tying goal only to see John Goffredo fire the puck into an empty net before time ran out to close the scoring. Adam Dekker maintained his perfect record, stopping 32 of 35 shots to go 8-0 on the season.
 
Peter Vetri took the loss, making 35 saves on 39 shots.   Peter Vetri stood between the pipes for Danbury tonight as he returned from suspension and Nick Niedert was called up to the AHL Bridgeport Sound Tigers.
 
Notes:   Important games, these.   Third-place Danbury is the only team in the FHL to have beaten the first-place New Jersey Outlaws.   The two teams meet again tomorrow night, and then again twice more before Christmas. They face each other four out of five games and as far as Danbury is concerned each game counts double. Keeping the Outlaws from adding more points to their tally is every bit as important as adding to their own.
 
The teams travel to Wayne (NJ) for the Live Sports Video Game of the Week at 7:35. These two teams return to the Ice Arena Thursday and Friday night of next week, both 7:35 starts.
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