Game 5 Wrap-Up

Another landslide win for the Whalers keeps them undefeated at home. 6-1 over Broome last night, and what a show it was. Very likely the most intense hockey game the league has seen so far.

• Total of 141 penalty minutes handed out (76 to Danbury on 20 penalties, and 65 to Broome on 17 penalties)
• Niedert back to his opening weekend form, 23 saves on 24 shots
• Testa had 43 saves for 49 shots for Broome. I really felt bad for the guy last night. That's a respectable save percentage, and to lose that much shows that his team completely left him hanging. There were numerous points where he was violently checking Whalers players out of his crease because the Broome D-men were nowhere to be found. 
• Danbury was 3 for 6 on the powerplay last night and 8 for 9 on the PK. Looking LOTS better.
• Goals: Karlov (Madsen, Guy). Willock [PP] (Adler, Dabkowski). Karlov [PP] (Adler, Bria). Siefert [PP] (Arnott). OMalley (Schott, Madsen). Siefert (Sands, Karlov). 
• Nearly another hat trick for Karlov. Sooner or later it's gotta happen for him. 2 goals and an assist for 3 points and a +2 rating. 
• 36 penalty minutes for Fulton. He now leads the league in PIMs. Charging, Fighting, Fighting, Roughing, Leaving the penalty box, continuing altercation misconduct, and an abuse misconduct rounded out his night.
• The bench brawl that stopped the game for 20 minutes saw Danbury Asst Coach Esposito ejected from the game as well. Bad image? Maybe. Personally, glad to see him sticking up for his players as well. And it was a hell of a time to watch. 
• Fulton's antics were definitely the highlight of the evening, but watching DiMarzo throw down some big hits toward the end I think surprised Broome as much as it did me. Good for him. 
• Final shots were 49-24 Danbury. They limited Broome to only 8 shots on goal over the first 40 minutes of the game. The final 16 all came in the third period on a set of furious Broome rushes to break Niedert's shutout. They were NOT happy after the second period bench clearing. Still, if we can get that kind of ratio every game I'll take it. 

Around the league:

• Danbury locked in 2nd place in the league last night. Both the Whalers and the Barons have 7 points, but Danbury takes second on virtue of the Barons having a game in hand. The Warriors are in 1st place with 10 points (5-1-0). They beat the Aviators (still last) 6-4 last night.
• The Privateers took down Frenzy 7-1.
• Aviators play Frenzy today, Warriors play Privateers. No games on tap for tomorrow. 
• The Whalers are back in action Thursday night @ Home v. Aviators

One more tidbit. Caught up with Augie DiMarzo and Paul Arnott at the bar post-game last night and grabbed this one from Augie: "I'd take 2,000 fans here over 20,000 fans somewhere else any day, because every single one of you knows the game and puts that behind us"

Will update from around the league during the week. Otherwise, ciao until Thursday.