Wolves Fall to the Hat Tricks

by Jeff Barrett



Watertown, NY -  For the final time this regular season, the Danbury Hat Tricks made their seventh trip to the Watertown Municipal Arena for a rare Thursday night tilt. Five of the previous meetings here in Watertown went to overtime, with two of those games ending in a shootout.

The Hat Tricks came into the night holding an 8 point advantage over the Wolves for the battle for the second spot in the Empire Division playoff hunt, while Watertown held just a one point lead over Port Huron for the third position.

Just :18 into the opening period, the Wolves went on the power play on a Gleb Bandurkin interference call, and less than a minute later, Watertown capitalized with a Trevor Lord goal assisted by Davide Gaeta and Jimmy Lodge to give Watertown the early lead.

Watertown continued the early scoring just 1:12 later at the 2:20 mark when Carter Thornton knocked one from the right side to put the Wolves up 2-0. Lodge and Trevor Neumann were credited with assists on the goal.

Watertown outshot Danbury 14-12 in the first and held the 2-0 lead at the break.

The Hat Tricks Josh Labelle cut the Watertown lead in half at 13:34 of the second period with a wrist shot from the slot, assisted by Chase Harwell.

Danbury outshot Watertown in the second 15-14 making the totals 28-27 in favor of the Wolves after 40 minutes of play.

At the 3:55 mark of the third, Jacob Ratcliffe would tie the game for the Hat Tricks, assisted by Jonny Ruiz and Kyle Gonzalez.

Danbury scored three unanswered goals in the third to stretch the lead to 5-2.

First it was Chase Harwell at the 9:02 mark assisted by Ratcliffe, and Xavier Abdella.

Then at the 11:04 mark, Gleb Bandurkin lit the lamp with the assist going to Cory Anderson. making it 4-2.

Connor Wooley added an empty netter at the 19:51 mark to push the score to the 5-2 final. 

The Wolves will be back in action Friday night as they host the Continental leading Carolina Thunderbirds with the puck drop scheduled for 7:30pm. For the Hat Tricks, it will be a 2-1/2 hour ride south on route 81 in New York state, to battle the Empire leading Binghamton Black Bears in the Visions Veterans Memorial Arena at 7:00pm