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Trenton Devils sweep Elmira Jackals with 3-2 win
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The Trenton Devils completed a three-game sweep of their division rivals, the Elmira Jackals with a 3-2 victory in Trenton’s Sovereign Bank Arena. Jeff Prough, the T-Devils’ second leading scorer from last season contributed two power-play goals on the night, capping off a weekend in which he scored in three games straight. With the three wins Trenton draws to within three points of the division-leading Jackals but they will not rest on their laurels.
“This was a big weekend, we knew coming in. We talked about an identity as a team and this weekend we started to establish it. With the power-play we made some adjustments tonight and the guys executed a little better. I think there is still room for improvement but we were a lot better getting pucks through to the net.” said Trenton coach Rick Kowalsky after the victory.
The bad blood from the two clubs’ rivalry played a big part in Sunday afternoon’s contest. In the first period alone there were 54 minutes in penalties assessed; 38 minutes worth to Elmira and 16 minutes worth to Trenton.
Trenton’s hero from Saturday night, Myles Stoesz went toe-to-toe with Elmira’s multi-talented big-man Chaz Johnson four minutes into the game; a fight stemming from some shoving after the play had been blown dead. Johnson got the better of Stoesz, pulling his jersey over his head, and then punching away at him until the linesmen stepped in to break them up.
Twelve minutes later, Elmira’s Brett Gallant speared Stoesz with the butt-end of his stick over near the two team’s benches. Myles took exception to this and unleashed a barrage of punches on Gallant. Gallant was assessed a four minute penalty for the spearing and Stoesz two minutes for roughing in addition to the five minutes each for fighting. Further compounding the situation was Elmira’s Brennan Turner who jumped into the fight as a third combatant, thus earning himself a ten minute game misconduct and an ejection.
Before the first period was over, Elmira’s Chanse Fitzpatrick, who had been inviting Trenton players to fight with him all throughout the early portion of the game, dropped his gloves and yapped at Devils defenseman Justin Coutu, trying to convince him to do the same. However Coutu’s cooler head prevailed, deciding that it was not the right moment to start an altercation, thus he continued back to the Trenton bench. The linesman escorted Fitzpatrick over to the visitor’s locker room entrance and the referee assessed the Elmira player with a two minute unsportsmanlike conduct and a ten minute misconduct penalty.
While the Fitzpatrick penalties did not directly affect the Jackals on the scoreboard the parade of Elmira players to the penalty box; Olivier Proulx for a vicious knee on knee hit on the Devils’ Zancanaro and a high sticking penalty to Wes Cunningham, put the T-Devils on a 5-on-3 power-play early in the second period.
This was the opportunity that the Devils needed. After a game of catch between the two Devils’ defensemen at the blue line, the puck worked its way closer to the net and was eventually whacked in by Jeff Prough. Tony Zancanaro and Brett Wilson were credited with the assists on the play.
Moments later Elmira’s Olivier Proulx got his team on the board with a shot from the right face-off circle that seemed to catch Devils net minder Gerald Coleman by surprise.
But the score did not remain tied for long. Jeremy Akeson took-off down the middle of the ice after receiving a long pass from the Devils’ zone. One-on-one with the Jackals defenseman, Akeson lost control of the puck, but it was quickly retrieved by Mike Harder who was following close behind. Harder instinctively threw the puck over to a hard-charging Kyle Kucharski, who the Elmira defense had somehow missed. Kucharski was able to fire the pill past the sprawling Michael Teslak to make it 2-1 Trenton.
Jeff Prough put Trenton up 3-1 with under a minute to go in the second period when he blasted home a one-timer for his second power-play goal of the night, off of a pass from David Leaderer who was staked out behind the Elmira net.
In the third period the T-Devils played a defensively sound game, the only blip on the radar being a Chanse Fitzpatrick goal in which he deflected a shot past Coleman. The Devils killed off two Elmira power-plays, one early and one late in the period, to hold on for the victory.
Gerald Coleman stopped 29 of 31 shots in the winning effort. This was his third victory of the year and for all intents and purposes, he is still undefeated in regulation time and overtime. The only loss on his record this season was in a shootout, and in that game he surrendered no goals during actual playing time. Special teams for the T-Devils had improved over their efforts in the two prior games; the power-play unit converting on 2-of-7 power-plays and the penalty kill denying Elmira 5 out of 5 times in which they were shorthanded.
Jeff Prough gave a few thoughts on his efforts after the game: “The power-play, we struggled to get things going in the first part of the year. I think our penalty kill has been good, but our power play has been lagging. A team like that which runs around and takes a lot of penalties, you have to make them pay. I think hopefully we built some confidence there with the two goals.”
Several other players also put in notable performances for Trenton this weekend. Mike Harder had four assists in three games. Tony Zancanaro contributed three assists between Saturday and Sunday’s games. Brett Wilson, the former Princeton University player who scored his first professional goal and contributed three assists this weekend. Trevor Kell scored a goal in the third period of Friday’s game in Elmira, then was promptly recalled to Lowell of the AHL on Saturday where he took part in games against the Providence Bruins and the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.
The T-Devils will play three games in the upcoming week prior to making a two week road trip in the later half of November. On Wednesday November 11th the Devils will take on the defending Kelly Cup champion South Carolina Stingrays at 7 PM. The Stingrays, led in points by rookie Nikita Kashirsky who has seven goals and five assists in eleven games this year, come out of this past weekend with two wins and a loss against Wheeling (win) and Reading (one win and one loss). The Stingrays are back-stopped by Todd Ford, a former Toronto Maple Leafs draft pick who has spent four seasons as a journeyman netminder in the ECHL, and Braden Holtby, who was a back-up netminder for the AHL Calder Cup champion Hershey Bears last year before being sent to the ECHL this season as their NHL parent club the Washington Capitals were over-stocked with goaltenders.
Also notable about this match-up is the return to Trenton of Cail MacLean who is now the coach of South Carolina. MacLean spent part of three seasons with the Trenton Titans, partaking in 140 regular season contests and 33 playoff games including a run to the 2001 Kelly Cup Finals, eventually losing out to the same South Carolina teams which he now coaches.
Next weekend, on Friday the 13th and Saturday the 14th, the T-Devils will take on the Reading Royals for the first time this season as part of a home-and-home series. The first game on Friday will be at the Sovereign Bank Center in Reading, PA at 7:05 PM. Saturday’s game will be in Trenton at Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton; the game starts at 7:00 PM. Reading sits tied for second place with the Trenton Devils, also having a record of 5-3-1-1 for 12 points. The Royals are led offensively by rookie Stefano Giliati who has six goals and eight assists in ten games so far. Andrew Engelage, a prospect of the Toronto Maple Leafs, has put up the best stats in goal for the Royals, posting a 3.69 GAA and a 0.852 save percentage.
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