Dashers Sweep the Bees

by Nate Williamson
 
The Danville Dashers took down the Battle Creek Rumble Bees in FPHL action in the series finale on Saturday night in Danville. After a first period that ended at a score of 2-1 in favor of the Dashers, the Danville offense exploded for four goals in the second period, and never took their foot off the gas. Adam Howey got the scoring underway on assists from Marco Luciani and Ethan Busch-Anderson after some impressive offensive build-up play with seven minutes gone in the first period. It was just six minutes later when Nick Gullo grabbed a hustle play goal, slotting home the third rebound in a sequence of saves from Battle Creek goaltender Mike DePerrio. As the final three minutes of the period were ticking off, Brad Denney found an outlet pass from Patrik Zilak, back after being a healthy scratch last night, wherein he used some clever stick moves to slide past two Battle Creek defenders, and slot home as Danville would take the lead and never look back. Second-period goals from Tyler Quintos (Patrik Zilak, Nick Gullo), Fred Hein (Mitch Atkins, Jesse Neher) and Fred Hein put the Dashers (Atkins, Jesse Neher) up by a score of 4-1. After that it was Jakub Volf scoring for Battle Creek, cutting the lead to two goals on assists from Jake Mortley and Shea Carey. Danville wasn't to be outdone though as Jesse Neher (Tyler Quintos, Seth Ensor) and Levi Armstrong (Justin Brausen, Alex Pommerville) put the Dashers up by four to close out a second period that saw the Dashers offense truly come to life. The Dashers looked to find chemistry, which led to the Rumble Bees pulling goaltender Mike DePerrio in favor of Trevor Babin, who looked solid in his debut last night. The Dashers would only score one goal the rest of the night after Babin came in, adding another solid performance to his two-game resume. Former Dasher Marco Luciani found the scoresheet on assists from Stavros Soili s and Adam Howey to cut the Danville lead to 6-3, before Tyler Quintos scored his fourth point of the night, scoring the Dashers' second short-handed goal of the evening on a stretch pass from Jesse Neher. The three stars of the night all went to Danville, with Jesse Neher (1G, 2A) getting the third star, Nick Gullo (1G, 1A) getting the second and Tyler Quintos (2G, 2A) having a career night to earn the first star. The Dashers are back in action next weekend, moving to take on the Mentor Ice Breakers in Mentor on Friday and Saturday. You can catch the action on Mentor's Youtube Channel. Battle Creek moves on to host Port Huron at home in a weekend series, which will be broadcast on their Youtube channel, as well