Hat Tricks Top Dashers (2/8)

Danbury, CT - After the game slipped away from the Dashers last night, they had a chance for revenge in Danbury on Saturday. After a quick first period Dashers’ goal, the Hat Tricks floored the gas pedal to beat the Dashers 7-2 and complete the weekend sweep.

Another day to flip the script. The Dashers came out hot in the first half of period 1. It took just 3:40 for Zac Horn to light the lamp on a beautiful tic-tac-toe play by Trey Fischer and Bo Zinchenko. With an early lead, the Dashers continued to play strong and generate some opportunities in the offensive zone. Around the midway point in the frame, the tides began to turn. With just under 6 minutes in period 1, Danbury imposed their high caliber offense with 3 goals over the next 4:54. First it was Noah Robinson, finishing a rebound on his own power move to tie the game at 1. Next, Dylan Hullaby forced a turnover in the o-zone and wheeling a rocket to the far side of the net to beat Rutherford and make it 2-1. Then it was Jacob Ratcliffe banging home a one-timer in front from Vasilyev and in the blink of an eye it was 3-1. Danbury outshot the Dashers 25 to 9 through the first 20.

Period 2 left the Dashers with work to do trailing by a pair on the road. It took just 102 seconds for Newberg to flutter the puck over Rutherford’s shoulder and make it 4-1. The next 10 minutes featured 3 Danbury penalties and 1 Dasher penalty. With all this special teams time it was destined for another tally. Ironically, the next mark came at even strength. At the 12:46 mark, Vadim Frolov cocked back and let a wrister fly past Rutherford from the high slot to make it 5-1. Rutherford would be subbed for Oscar Wahlgren after 29 saves on 34 shots faced. However, 1:04 later, Wahlgren was baptized by fire when Hullaby sniped for his second of the evening making it 6-1. The Dashers, despite the deficit, continued to battle. On their final man advantage opportunity of the frame, Connor Mullins let a shot fly from the point that pinballed down off the post into the back of the net for his first of the season to cut the margin to 4. The Dashers outshot the Hat Tricks 18-13 in period 2, but were outscored 3-1.

A 4 goal deficit in period 3 is always a tough task, and that proved to be true for the Dashers. Less than 5 minutes in, Gleb Bandurkin potted his 20th mark of the season to make it 7-2 Hat Tricks. The physicality picked up as a result of tensions and frustrations boiling over. Rookie Trey Bruggeman dropped the gloves after the whistle for his first pro fight, which was a challenge of who could tackle who to the ice faster between him and Connor Woolley. Trey came out on top, and was also given an instigator penalty that ended his evening. The score held at 7-2 with the shots 62-41 in favor of the Hat Tricks.

Frankie McClendon’s 39 save effort combined with 6 different Hat Tricks goal-scorers proved to be the difference in the evening’s action. The Dashers fall to 1-29-3, and will return home for their first Friday, Saturday, Sunday set of the season with the Athens Rock Lobsters. The Dashers only win of the season came against Athens back on October 25, and Athens has lost just 5 since. Meanwhile the Hat Tricks improve to 19-10-6 and will travel to Port Huron for a weekend with the Prowlers in a battle of the #2 and #3 seeds in the Empire Division.