The visiting New Jersey Titans used a balance attached yesterday to defeat the Danbury Jr. Hat Tricks 4 – 1 in game one of this two game afternoon series.
The Jr. Hat Tricks opened the scoring with 3:20 remaining in the first period. Danbury’s Wolfgang Govedaris set up the play at the Titans far side blueline. He head manned the puck to Hunter Young who carried the biscuit deep into the offensive zone. As Young brought the puck back up along the boards, he was able to make a pass to Robert Hyde as Young was about to be knocked off the puck by three Titans defenders. As Hyde cut towards the bottom of the faceoff circle, he took a sharp angle shot that Ben Charette long side for his second goal of the season.
Then it was all Titans scoring four unanswered goals.
Colin Grable tied the game at 6:21 into the second period. Playing four on four hockey and in the Tricks zone, a Danbury defender picked up the loose puck and set it up along the far side boards where it was intercepted by David Posma. Posma brought the puck up along the boards into the corner, turned, and sent it back to Grable at the point. Grable skated all along to the goalmouth and deked around Danbury netminder Josh Seeley and deposited the puck into the empty net for his second goal of the season.
The Titans then took a 2 – 1 lead with 4:43 remaining in the second period. After the Red Buckets won the draw deep inside the offensive zone, Brendan Dumas picked up the loose puck in the far side corner and passed it back to Jack Karlsson at the point. As Karlsson brought the puck up along the boards, he was able to make a pass from the half wall to Anthony Calafiore inside the faceoff circle. Calafiore took a wrist shot that beat Seeley low, long side to eight goal of the season, and his team high tenth point against Danbury.
The Titans doubled their lead with 7:24 left in the game. Posma picked up the loose puck just outside his own near side faceoff circle and passed to Marcus Sang breaking down the boards. As Sang gained the offensive zone line, he passed it to Nick Ring on his right, who immediately sent a return pass to Sang. Sang took a wrist shot that was saved by Seeley but the deep rebound came out to Levente Keresztes who took a one-timer that beat Seeley high glove side for his fifth goal of the season.
A minute and a half later, Dumas lit the lamp for this ninth goal of the season to close out the scoring and make it a 4 – 1 game.
Charette turned aside 24 of 25 shots in the win while Seeley stopped 51 of 55 in defeat. Click here for the box score.
The teams will meet again this afternoon for game two of this two-game series at 2:00 PM from the Danbury Ice Arena.