Anthony Calafiore and Marcus Sang each had a pair of goals to help lead the Titans to a 5 – 2 win over the visiting Danbury Jr. Hat Tricks and complete a weekend sweep between the teams.
The victory improves the Titans record to 9 – 11 on the season for 18 points, third in the East Division.
Sang got the Titans on the board first at 7:51 into the opening period. With play inside the Danbury zone, Ethan Wongus had the puck at the far side corner. As he started to skate up the wall, he cut towards the net. As he reached the cage, he made a centering pass through the goalmouth and Sang backhanded the biscuit up and over Danbury’s goaltender Patriks Berzins and into the net to make it a 1 – 0 game.
Danbury’s Nash Jacobsma knotted the score at one with 9:12 remaining in the period. After Sylas Oberting took a shot on net that was saved by Berzins, the rebound came out to the Tricks’ Wyatt Stefan at the near side faceoff circle. Stefan started to skate up the wall and made a long stretch pass into the offensive zone where it was picked up by Jacobsma at the top of the far side circle. As Jacobsma entered the circle, he took a snapshot that beat Titans netminder Jacob Torgner long side for Jacobsma’s third goal of the season.
The Tricks’ Seth Rakosky was called for slashing just thirty-eight seconds into the middle stanza to give the Titans the man advantage. Thirty-nine seconds later Calafiore scored his first goal of the game. After Calafiore won the draw deep inside the offensive zone, the puck was picked up by Levente Keresztes who sent a bounce pass off the far side boards to Brendan Dumas at the half wall. As Dumas started to skate back, he turned and passed the puck to Calafiore at the faceoff dot and the Titans captain took a wrist shot that beat Berzins long side to make it a 2 – 1 game.
A half minute later Calafiore doubled the Titans lead. After the Tricks dumped the puck into the neutral zone, it was picked up by Calafiore at the far side wall and he passed it back to Joe Harney just outside the Titans blueline. Harney made a cross-ice pass to his defensive partner Eric Charpentier who started to skate up the near side boards. As Charpentier skated towards center ice, he made a cross-ice pass up to Calafiore. As the Staten Island, NY native gained the line, he put on a burst of speed and cut across the goalmouth and backhanded the puck past Berzins to make it a 3 – 1 game. It was Calafiore’s seventh goal of the season.
Jacobsma scored is second goal of the game at 5:14 into the second period to cut the Titans lead in half. With play inside the Hat Tricks zone, Oberting took a shot from the near side point that was blocked out front by Danbury’s Ivan Korodiuk who made a long stretch pass up to Chase Sandhu. As Sandhu gained the line, he turned at the top of the slot and passed the biscuit to a trailing Jacobsma who took a wrist shot that beat Torgner to make it a 3 – 2 game.
The Titans regained their two-goal lead at 5:14 into the third period on Joe Harney’s first of the season. With play inside the Tricks zone, Michael Young picked up the loose puck at the near side faceoff circle and skated towards the net. Young took a wrist shot that was saved by Berzins but the deep rebound came out to Harney at the top of the slot, and Harney took a shot that founds its way through traffic in front of the net to beat Berzins to make it 4 – 2.
Sang scored his second of the night, an empty netter, with 3:53 remaining in the game to close out the scoring and make it 5 – 2.
Tornger stopped 19 of 21 shots in the win while Berzins turned aside 35 of 39. Click here for the complete box score.
The Titans are now off for a week. They will resume play the weekend of November 18 and 19 in Attleboro, MA to take on the Northeast Generals.