DANBURY HAT TRICKS at ELMIRA RIVER SHARKS

Elmira Fires Two Hat Tricks Past Danbury, 7-3

by Jon Kliment

Elmira, NY - Elmira came into another three in three weekend looking ahead to six games in eight days kicking it off with a home and home against the Hat Tricks. Danbury sits as the defending champions and wear that crown with a reason.

The Hat Tricks, despite a depleted lineup, were able to find the back of the net first on a Jarrod Yau shot that eked its way past Sammy Bernard and trickled over the goal line for a 1-0 advantage at 9:18 of the first period. 1:04 later Bret Parker took advantage of Danbury playing far side heavy and walked in and took a shot from the top of the circle to bear Liam Murray to tie up the game at 1 a piece. 43 seconds later Cody Rodgers snagged the puck off a failed breakout and cut wide around the zone before depositing the puck between Murray's legs for the 2-1 Elmira lead.

Elmira didn't waste time in the second as just 29 seconds in Darius Davidson beat Murray to put the River Sharks up 3-1. Each team traded special teams chances until Danbury was able to send all five guys at the net and in a flurry beat Bernard as Connor Wolley made it 3-2. Despite giving up a goal late Elmira kept on the attack and 1:05 later Parker took a wrap-around attempt beating Murray to give the River Sharks a 4-2 advantage. 

In the final 20 minutes both sides continued to attack something that has not been the MO for the River Sharks when they have a lead. It was met with success after Darius Davidson scored at 8:45 of the period on a rebound of a Steven Klick shot to give Elmira the 5-2 advantage. The period continued to tick down and in the last three minutes an outpouring with a first ever event occurred as Darius Davidson completed his hat trick at 17:09 of the third on a perfect feed from Marty Moucha right into the slot and put it past Murray. Jarrod Yau got one back for the Hat Tricks 1:12 later, but with just a couple seconds to go Bret Parker was able to fire one into an empty net to complete a Hat Trick of his own to make it 7-2. 

Bernard stopped 48 of 51 for the win.

Elmira goes back at it in Danbury tomorrow night at 7:00pm. Follow along live on Youtube and Mixlr. #FeartheFin

HAT TRICKS DROPPED 7-3 IN ELMIRA FRIDAY

by Doug Lattuca

Elmira, NY -  The Hat Tricks fell to Elmira 7-3 on Friday night in the first game of the home-and-home series. With the loss, the Hat Tricks have dropped three straight and four of the last five.

Despite defenseman Jarod Yau opening the scoring at 9:18 of the first, the Rivers Sharks answered with three unanswered goals, two in the first and one in the second. After Danbury got within one late in the second, Elmira responded with three straight scores and four of the final five tallies.

Forwards Bret Parker and Darius Davidson both recorded hat tricks for the River Sharks and goalie Sammy Bernard stopped 48 of 51 shots.

Shortly after Yau’s game-opening goal, Elmira struck back with two goals in under 40 seconds. First, Parker sniped the puck into the top right corner to even the score. Then, forward Cody Rogers followed it up to give the River Sharks a 2-1 lead at 11:05 of the first.

29 seconds into the second period, Davidson took the puck off the skate of Yau and flipped it over Murray’s pad and into the back of the net. Later in the period, with traffic in front of the goal, Connor Woolley backhanded the puck into the bottom right side of the net to make it a one-goal game once again. About a minute later, a wrap-around shot from Parker hopped over the pad of Murray to balloon the Elmira lead back to two.

With nine minutes gone in the third period, Davidson scored his second goal of the night on a rebound. Less than 10 minutes after his second goal, Davidson secured the hatty. A Yau point shot, late in the third, found its way through for Danbury’s third goal of the night. The River Sharks added an empty-netter with two second left.



The Hat Tricks return home tomorrow night against Elmira in hopes of splitting the weekend set. Puck drop is at 7 p.m.

WATERTOWN WOLVES at PORT HURON PROWLERS

PROWLERS ESCAPE WOLVES 4-3

by Will Wiegelman

Port Huron, MI - The Port Huron Prowlers opened their weekend series against the Watertown Wolves with a 4-3 victory at McMorran Place on Feb. 9. Liam Freeborn’s power-play goal in the third was the difference.

“Wasn’t a perfect game but we pulled it out,” said Prowlers assistant coach Chris Paulin. “I thought we battled for each other, got some timely goaltending and were fortunate to come out on the right end.”

The Prowlers got the scoring started 59 seconds into the contest as Tristan Simm grabbed a loose puck behind the net and fed Vincent Dekumbis in the slot who put home his third of the year. Midway through the period, Carter Thornton got a back-door feed past Tucker Tynan to knot the game at one. 

Late in the first with the Wolves on a man advantage, Eloi Bouchard tried to fire a long pass but gave it right to Dan Chartrand. The Manitoba native stepped back over the Watertown blue line and ripped a wrister past Bouchard to give Port Huron back the lead.

The teams played four on four on multiple occasions during the game and in that situation in the second, Simm spun away from a defender in the corner, slipped to the front of the net and beat Bouchard to open up a 3-1 lead for the Prowlers.

The Wolves used their power play to come back though and after Michael Mercurio pulled them within one, Dakota Seaman slammed a loose puck in the crease for his first of the year to tie the score heading into the final period.

There, Port Huron got a man advantage of its own and Freeborn’s shot slipped through traffic and five-hole on Bouchard for the game winner.

Simm was the first star with a two-point night while Dalton Jay added two assists. Freeborn extended his point streak to 12, the longest by a Prowler this season. Tynan made 31 saves to get back in the win column.

Mercurio led all skaters with three points while Thornton added an assist to his goal and Chiwetin Blacksmith dished out a pair of helpers. Bouchard made 22 saves. All three Watertown goals came on the power play.

“I know we had a couple of retaliatory penalties, that can’t happen and we addressed that,” Paulin said. “It gave the kill an opportunity. I think there were some good things on the kill, obviously we made a couple of mistakes and it hurt us. It’s an area we have to be better at tomorrow; we will be.”

The Prowlers and Wolves reunite on Feb. 10 at 6:05 P.M. to close out their weekend series.

BINGHAMTON BLACK BEARS at MOTOR CITY ROCKERS 

Rockers Fall To Black Bears 7-5 In Back and Forth Affair

by Ben Szilagy

Fraser, MI - The Binghamton Black Bears have been dominant at home all season, but it has also been a staunch opponent on the road. 

On Friday, the Rockers looked to host the Black Bears for the first time this season in hopes to cut into Binghamton’s division lead.

Unfortunately, Motor City couldn’t keep pace as it chased goals from the second period on as the Rockers lost 7-5 at Big Boy Arena snapping a two game win streak.

The Rockers thought it struck first in the first four minutes with a deflected shot from Scott Coash that was waved off. It was determined that the blade touched the puck too high and a high stick was called. 

That didn’t deter Motor City, however. It emboldened them. 

Midway through the first period Jonthan Juliano centered the puck from the nearside corner to the slot, which allowed Roman Gaudet to step in and rip a shot for a 1-0 lead.

The Black Bears tied the score after a successful power play kill when Jesse Anderson cleared the puck onto the stick of a freed Gavin Yates that hit him in stride out of the box. Yates raced into the Rockers’ end and beat Ricky Gonzalez with a series of dekes for a 1-1 tie with 4:08 to play in the first. 

Binghamton wouldn’t let the lead slip out of its paws the rest of the night.

44-seconds into the second period the Black Bears newly acquired forward Andrew Uturo earned his first pro goal after a tic-tac-toe back and forth with Gavin Yates that Uturo finished in the far circle for a 2-1 lead.

The Rockers tied the score, 2-2, on the power play off the stick of Jameson Milam when he finished a pass from Nick Gullo in the offensive zone midway through the second period. 

The back and forth continued from there.

Yates earned his second of the night when he sniped the top shelf in the far side circle for a 3-2 lead with 8:04 in the period. Motor City’s Ryan Rotondi picked up a loose puck in the neutral zone and walked into the offensive zone for his first goal of the year for a 3-3 tie five minutes later. Binghamton retook the lead with 29.2 seconds left in the period when Dakota Bohn fired a shot from the point for his first of the night and a 4-3 lead. 

The tug of war continued into the third when Scott Coash tied the score seven minutes into the final frame before the Black Bears used the power play to grab an insurance goal after Jesse Anderson made it a 5-4 game eight minutes later.

Bohn fired another hard shot from the point after Tyson Kirkby cycled the puck from the half wall that blazed through a crowd for a 6-4 lead.

Motor City’s Jonathan Juliano earned a power play goal to bring the Rockers within one, 6-5, with 6:21 to play before the Black Bears recorded an empty net goal with 35 seconds left off the stick of Austin Thompson for his 11th of the season. 

Motor City and Binghamton will square off again on Saturday during HomeTown Heroes Night at Big Boy Arena where the puck will drop at 6:05pm. 

BLACK BEARS OUTLAST ROCKERS IN HIGH-SCORING AFFAIR

by Brooks Hill

Fraser, MI - The Binghamton Black Bears outlasted the Motor City Rockers 7-5 on Friday Night in a high-scoring affair. Gavin Yates was named the 1st Star of the game with 2 goals and 3 assists. Dakota Bohn was named 2nd Star with his first career Hat Trick.

Motor City started the scoring in the first period. Roman Gaudet was able to squeak one through to make it 1-0. Gavin Yates responded with Binghamton’s first goal of the night, tying the game at 1-1. That would end the lowest-scoring period of the night. 

As the second period opened up, so did the scoring. Andrew Uturo gave Binghamton the lead with his first career goal, in his professional debut. The Black Bears held the lead for about eight minutes until Jameson Milam tied the game for the Rockers on the power play. Like a tennis match, the teams volleyed back and forth trading goals. Yates scored his second, then Ryan Rotondi tied the game, and Dakota Bohn was able to send Binghamton to the room up by one, leading 4-3 at the second break. 

Seven minutes into the third period, the Rockers scored, tying the game at 4-4. 22 seconds later, the Black Bears answered back as Jesse Anderson picked up his 5th goal of the year. Bohn added another power play strike for Binghamton extending their lead 6-4, but Motor City wasn’t finished yet. 

The Rockers were able to manage a final power play goal, making it a one goal contest with four minutes left in regulation. With the net empty, Bohn would shoot the puck the length of the ice into the vacated crease, sealing the game for the Black Bears and earning himself his first career hat trick. Binghamton wins 7-5 in a 12-goal battle in Michigan.  

BATON ROUGE ZYDECO at COLUMBUS RIVER DRAGONS

River Dragon Streaks Continue

by Tom Callahan

Columbus, GA - The Columbus River Dragons team-record win streak reached 12 straight games on Friday night with an 8-5 win over the Baton Rouge Zydeco.

Hunter Bersani also put up a personal best five point night in the win and was named the game’s first star for his efforts.

The scoring started early with the teams trading goals just two minutes into the contest. Bersani opened the scoring with his fifth of the season at the 2:00 mark, followed 43 seconds later by a goal from Noah Robinson to tie the game at 1-1.

Baton Rouge pulled ahead at 8:42 of the period on a goal from Mathias Tellstrom and the first ended with the Zydeco leading 2-1.

In the second Columbus appeared to break the game open, scoring four times on goals from Austin Daae, Justin MacDonald, Ryan Hunter and Carter Shinkaruk to grab a 5-2 lead after 40 minutes of play.

But back came the Zydeco, scoring twice to touch off a back-and-forth third period which saw the River Dragons lead narrowed to a goal twice before Bersani and Hunter added their second goals of the night for some late insurance and the 8-5 final.

Notes:

• MacDonald extended his league record scoring streak to 22 straight games with a point after posting a goal and two assists in the contest. The streak, which dates back to December 1, now includes 17 multi-point games and is at 17 goals and 31 assists for 48 points.
• Kyle Moore extended his personal-best scoring streak to 11 games as well, and now has seven goals and 18 assists for 25 points in that span.
• Bersani’s five-point night is his career high and also ties Kyle Moore for most points in a game this season.
• Six River Dragons players notched multi-point efforts in the win.
• Former River Dragons player and Columbus native Jake Cox scored in the loss for the Zydeco.
• Columbus has not lost a game in 2024.

Columbus is back in action Saturday night hosting the Mississippi Sea Wolves at 7:05 pm on Youth Hockey Night. Tickets are on sale now for all remaining River Dragons home games at the Civic Center Box Office and online at TicketMaster.com.

ZYDECO FALL SHORT TO RED HOT RIVER DRAGONS

by Joseph Furtado

Columbus, GA - With a recently overhauled lineup, the Baton Rouge Zydeco returned to Columbus in hopes of snapping their seven-game losing streak. 

Baton Rouge played from behind for most of tonight's game but managed to keep it close against the second-best offense in the league. After taking a 2-1 lead in the first period, things began to get away from them entering the second period. 



The River Dragons managed to net four straight goals on Bailey Stephens, who was making his first start for the Zydeco. Columbus would take a 5-2 heading into the final 20 minutes of hockey, looking to win their 12th game in a row. 

However, Baton Rouge found some life in the third period, getting two quick goals under three minutes into the third from Josiah Roen and Jake Cox. Despite the strong push and closing the gap to one, the River Dragons offense would put the game away with a few more goals to win it 8-5. 

With the win, the River Dragons would improve to 8-1 against the Zydeco and improve to 24-3-2-2-1. Meanwhile, Baton Rouge now drops to 6-21-4-1-0 after the loss. Both teams will meet again next week in Columbus for a doubleheader.