Renewed Dashers offense takes down Rumble Bees

by Nate Williamson

The Danville Dashers took down the Battle Creek Rumble Bees in Federal Prospect Hockey League action Wednesday night at the David S. Palmer Arena in Danville by a massive score of 9-2.
The game started out largely in favor of the Rumble Bees as they jumped out to an early 1-0 lead after Tony Lampo found the back of the net after a chaotic moment in front of Danville's starting goaltender Harley White. The puck was redirected many a time in front of the Dashers keeper, before Toni Lampo buried it home to open the scoring just over a minute into the game. Former Dasher Ryan Alves and defenseman David Nicoletti were credited with assists.
Tanner Hildebrandt evened the score four minutes later for the Dashers when Kristers Bormanis and Fred Hein teamed up to feed Tanner Hildebrandt on a power play goal. Dashers fans were officially into the game as the team returned home for their first home game in almost two weeks, as momentum built in favor of the Dashers.
That was short-lived however as Shea Carey fired home on an assist from Vinnie Susi with just nine minutes gone in the game, with a rebound bouncing off of the back of a Battle Creek player, and finding the back of the net as Battle Creek was giving fits to the Dashers defensemen and goaltender White.
The early goings of the game the pucks seemed to be loaded full of strange bounces, and White found himself the victim of it, being pulled from the about halfway through the first period. The Rumble Bees gave fits to the Dashers defense for only a few minutes more, as Danville's regular starting goaltender got his defense in order, keeping Battle Creek out of the net for the remainder of the period.
With the defense holding firm the remainder of the period, Danville's Jesse Neher and Tanner Hildebrandt would both score with Fred Hein scoring two goals, to break open the game in favor of Danville as they scored four straight even-strength goals to take a 5-2 lead heading into the second period.
After that Danville only took four minutes to find the back of the net again following the second intermission, with Kristers Bormanis firing home off an assist from Tanner Hildebrandt and Brad Denney, scoring his first home goal as a Dasher. Along with that, the Rumble Bees pulled goalie Jacob Mullen in favor of Stephen Harvey.
The Dashers were up 6-2, but didn't let up on the offensive side of things as Nick Gullo scored an even-strength goal just thirty seconds later against the new goaltender. After that, Johan Hoglund fired a rocket of a slapshot from the point to put the Dashers up 8-2 with 12 minutes left to go.
It was all Dashers until the end of the game, with Jesse Neher scoring his second goal of the night with just under a minute in the game.
As was expected after the second period, the Dashers swept the stars on the night, with Kristers Bormanis taking the third star, Tanner Hildebrandt taking the second star and Fred Hein taking the first star on the evening.
The Dashers will retake the ice Friday in Port Huron against the Prowlers, before returning to Danville for Military Appreciation Night Saturday in Danville.