Wednesday Wrap-up: Danbury Shutouts New Jersey at Home

New Jersey 0 @ Danbury 3 - The Danbury Hat Tricks stood strong on home ice, taking a 3-0 victory over the New Jersey Titans. This win came just days after splitting a series in New Jersey and sets their season series at 2-2. The first period came and went with no scoring, and both teams showcased some solid defense. Shots were just 8-5 in favor of the Hat Tricks after 20 minutes of gametime and one power play for Danbury. This trend was quickly broken into the second period when Lukas Zimovcak won a board battle against Patrik Ula, who found Gavin Burke on the back door for a wide-open tap-in goal. Despite this quick turnaround, there was no more scoring for the rest of the period, and Danbury secured a 1-0 lead heading into the third period. The third period also took quite some time to find scoring, but with three minutes remaining in the frame and with the Titans in desperation mode, Matt Shpungin found the second Danbury tally. This time, it was a dump attempt that bounced off the back wall and spat out in front of the net, at which point goaltender Tyler Rounds attempted to play the puck but ended up batting it into his own net. With the net empty, Willem Kerr snagged a misplayed puck in the neutral zone and scored with just under two minutes left, and sealed the victory for Danbury. Without a big game from Jon Dukaric, this victory for Danbury would have been a difficult one. 28 shots against, 28 saves, Dukaric was perfect from puck drop to the final buzzer. Some grit and poise allowed Danbury to then convert, of course, a little bit of luck, and the Hat Tricks took the ‘W’ on their own turf.