Danbury Titans Falter in Third Period, Lose 5-3

 

The Berlin RiverDrivers scored five unanswered goals in the third period to come from behind and defeat the Danbury Titans 5-3 Sunday Night in the Hat City. The win snaps Danbury's two game winning streak, while it moves the Berlin RiverDrivers up into third place in the Federal Hockey League, only 1 point behind the Titans. 

With Danbury playing in their third game in as many nights, along with the Berlin RiverDrivers playing their third in four nights, the first period was a slower affair with neither team finding the back of the net. The highlight of the period came when Danbury's Alex Taulien dropped the gloves with Berlin's Nick Wright, with Taulien popping Wright's helmet off before the pair of players tumbled to the ice. Danbury would outshoot the RiverDrivers 11-7 in the period as the teams skated deadlocked into the intermission. 

The Titans' offense would wake up in the second period with a pair of goals only 26 seconds apart. First it was Junior Harris scoring his 3rd of the season, assisted by Dalton Jay and Taylor Bourne. With the assist, Bourne stretched his points streak to 3 games, after recording goals in both games against the Danville Dashers. Off the faceoff the Titans would score again, this time with Matt Coleman finding the back of the net for his 5th of the season. Brian Wadsworth and Stephen Gallo had the assists, and Danbury had all the momentum. The Titans would pot their third of the season courtesy of Dalton Jay's team leading 8th goal of the season after he was sprung on a breakaway from Junior Harris. It would spell the end of the night for Berlin starting goaltender Garrett Storms, as he was replaced before the third period by Matt Kaludis after surrendering 3 goals on 24 shots. Berlin would record 12 shots of their own in the period, but would need to find another gear to get back into the game. 

Berlin head coach Andre Niec would not give specifics for what was said between periods, but gave the credit to his players for coming out the way the did for the third. With Harris in the box for hooking, Berlin's John Celli was left along on the back post and slammed home a pass from former Titan Yuto Osawa to get the RiverDrivers on the board. Pat Harrison would cut the deficit to one just over 5 minutes later with a seeing eye shot that found its way past a screened Nick Niedert. Former Brewster Bulldog Jan Salak tied things up with 5:55 to go, and the momentum was firmly in the RiverDrivers' grasp. A controversial delay of game penalty assessed against Niedert for dislodging the net provided the opportunity Berlin needed, and Cole Gunner scored the game winning goal by banking his shot off the back of Niedert and into the net. Artur Drindrozhik added an empty netter for an insurance marker. 

For the Titans, the loss spoils a successful weekend the started with two wins over the first place Dashers. For Berlin, it caps off three wins in a row. With those nine points, the RiverDrivers leapfrog themselves into third place, trailing the second place Titans by a single point. The Danbury Titans will be in action again Friday, December 9th, as they host the Port Huron Prowlers for a 7:15pm faceoff. The teams will then faceoff again on Saturday, December 10th with the same start time. 

 Full season and individual game ticket plans are now on sale at DanburyTitans.com or by calling 844-DT-HOCKEY.