Hat Tricks Comeback Falls Short on Saturday Night

DANBURY, CT – The Danbury Hat Tricks (33-21-3, 97 pts) suffered just their fifth home loss of the season on Saturday, dropping the second game of a three-game series 5-3 to the Binghamton Black Bears (30-24-2, 88 pts).

Danbury’s home dominance has been, in large part, due to scoring early on in the game. On Saturday, Binghamton scored the first two goals of the game and Danbury had to play from behind for much of the contest.

The Black Bears scored twice in the first period to take a 2-0 lead into the second frame. Danbury answered early on in the second with Dmitry Kuznetsov’s 32^nd goal of the season. The power-play tally was assisted by Steve Mele (17) and Aaron Atwell (20).

Binghamton scored its second power-play goal of the game just under 10 minutes later and took a two-goal lead into the final period.

Again, Danbury scored early with Dustin Jesseau’s 19^th goal this season. Phil Bronner (2) and Brendan Pepe (1) assisted, with Pepe recording his first-career point.

Jesseau’s goal brought the Hat Tricks back within one, but that was as close as they got the rest of the way. Binghamton added two more goals in the second half of the third period and took a 5-2 lead into the final minutes.
With just under four minutes left in the game, the Hat Tricks pulled goaltender Brian Wilson for an extra attacker. Just a few seconds later, Jonny Ruiz (47) batted a puck out of the air and into the net to make it a two-goal game. Bronner (3) and Garrett Gallagher (9) assisted on the goal, but Danbury couldn’t put another puck past goaltender Joe Sheppard.

The Hat Tricks and Black Bears return to the ice in Danbury on Sunday night at 7 p.m. Tickets are available here.