News release
19 February 2006
Danbury, CT The Danbury Trashers scored a late third period goal, breaking a 4-4 tie to beat the Elmira Jackals 5-4 Sunday night at the Danbury Ice Arena.
After suffering two difficult losses to Danbury and Adirondack at the First Arena the previous two evenings, Elmira went into the DIA hoping to feed off their prior success in the Trashers home rink. Newcomer Todd Grant scored his first goal in a Jackals uniform as he put Elmira on the board at 3:52 of the opening period. Jason Sessa set up the goal by stealing the puck behind Danburys net, then with his stick tied up with a defender, kicking the loose puck with his skate right out to the top of the crease where Grant was all alone to bury his shot. It was the lone goal of the opening period that saw just 12 total shots on goal, Danbury out-shooting the Jackals 7-5.
In the second period Elmira continued to keep the home fans quiet when Sam Paolini unleashed a blazing slap shot that beat goaltender Sylvain Daigle upstairs for a power play goal at 7:28, assisted by Sessa and Flo Iberer for a 2-0 Elmira lead. But the Trashers answered right back, Shawn Collymore scored a mere 48 seconds later at 8:16 to cut the Jackals lead in half. Then in the last three minutes of the period, things got wild. First Paolini scored his second goal of the game on a beautiful wrap-around shot that slid through the legs of Daigle for a 3-1 Elmira lead at 17:06, assisted by Chris Chaput and Kevin Cooper. For Chaput it was his team leading 30th assist of the year and it put him at the 50-point plateau, the first Jackal to reach that mark this season. Then Danbury came storming back. Drew Omicioli scored a pair of goals to tie the game at three. He first blasted in a power play goal at 18:44 and then backed it up with the game-tying goal with only 10.4 seconds remaining on the clock. It was the 5th goal allowed by Elmira in the last four games that was scored in the final 30 seconds of a period.
Just 2:41 into the third period, Danny Stewart gave Danbury their first lead of the game, 4-3, as he scored from Drew Omicioli and Ed Campbell. But Elmira answered. Rookie Jarrett Konkle sent an absolute Howitzer from the right face-off circle that scorched the back of the net for a power play goal at 7:22, assisted by Bobby Gates and Carl Drakensjo. Gates was the one who really setup the goal, stopping a clearing attempt at the blue line, then skating by a charging defenseman before sliding the puck across to the opposite circle where Konkle was unmarked. But Danbury again spoiled Elmiras bid for points when Alex Goupil scored at 15:25, lifting the Trashers to a late winner 5-4.
Sylvain Daigle made 25 saves on 29 shots in the win for Danbury, while Ryan McIntosh stopped 31-of-36 for the Jackals in the loss. Elmira was 2-for-5 on the power play in the game, while the Trashers were 1-for-5.