Wolves Fall to the Hat Tricks

by Jeff Barrett



Watertown, NY - The Wolves and Hat Tricks will bookend a weekend of action with this Friday night matchup and again on Sunday afternoon, as the playoff hunt gets into full swing. Watertown has won 5 out of 7 games this season versus Danbury, but the Hat Tricks come into tonight's game holding a 2 point advantage over the Wolves for second spot in the Empire Division.

The Hat Tricks would strike first on this night. It was Gleb Bandurkin lighting the lamp at the 4:17 mark, lifting a shot past Watertown starter Anton Borodkin making it 1-0, with assists going to Aleksandr Vasilyev and Jacob Ratcliffe. The Hat Tricks would hold the 1-0 lead at the first intermission, while also outshooting the Wolves 11-5 in the frame.

It would only take 2:35 into the second for Gleb Bandurkin to add his second goal of the night and extend the Hat Trick lead to 2-0. Assists on the goal belonged to Vadim Frolov and Jordon Popoff.

At the 6:56 mark, Bandurkin notched his third of the for Hat Tricks hat trick. Bandurkin was once again assisted by Frolov, with Cory Anderson also getting a helper on the play.

With the Hat Tricks up 3-0, Steven Klinck finally gave the home fans something to cheer about at 7:44 of the frame, sliding a shot past the Hat Tricks' Connor McCollum, cutting into the Danbury lead 3-1.

The Hat Tricks once again stretched their lead to 3 goals when Jacob Ratcliffe lit the lamp at the 16:40 mark. Jonny Ruiz was credited with the first assist, marking his 300th career point as a Danbury Hat Trick. Aleksandr Vasilyev was also credited with an assist.

4-1 would be the score after 40 minutes of play with the Hat Tricks outshooting Watertown 15-11 in the second period.

Watertown would tighten the score to 4-2 at the 11:20 mark of the third period on a Carter Thornton goal, assisted by Marc Bottero and Dustin Henning, but that's where the comeback ended and the Hat Tricks held on for the 4-2 win.

Danbury outshot Watertown 34-29 on the night.

Watertown will head to Poughkeepsie to face the HC Venom tomorrow night before coming back home on Sunday afternoon to battle the Hat Tricks at 4:30pm. For the Hat Tricks, they will head home to host the fourth place Port Huron Prowlers, before returning here on Sunday.