by Josh Starr
DANBURY, CT – The Danbury Hat Tricks (26-11-3, 77 pts) came out swinging on Saturday night as Nicola Levesque (10) scored early and Danbury skated to a 4-2 win over the Columbus River Dragons (19-11-4, 61 pts).
Levesque’s goal came just over five minutes into the game and the Hat Tricks never trailed after that point.
The Hat Tricks honored five members of their inaugural Ring of Honor class on Saturday night, inducting Nick Niedert, Matt Caranci, Dave MacIsaac, AJ Galante and Jim Galante.
As the Hat Tricks honored alumni from all of Danbury’s past teams, Cory Anderson followed in the Trashers’ footsteps just 3:33 into the game. Anderson got into a scrap with River Dragons’ forward Levi Armstrong and the Hat Tricks seized momentum from it leading to Levesque’s goal.
For the second-straight game, the Hat Tricks got off to a 2-0 lead as Tobias Odjick (8) extended the lead just before the halfway point of regulation.
After a Columbus power-play goal, Tom Mele lost his stick, but kicked a puck to Levesque who backhanded it into the net for his second of the night.
Mele finished off a three-point night with an empty-net goal to seal the win for the Hat Tricks.
The series concludes on Sunday night at 7 p.m. when the Hat Tricks look for the sweep against the River Dragons.