The Norwich Sea Captains dropped a back and forth affair to the Danbury Jr Hat Tricks 4-3 in Danbury on Sunday evening, October 30 in North American 3 Hockey League (NA3HL) action. After falling behind 1-0 on an early Danbury power play goal the Sea Captains fought back to take a 2-1 lead on two goals from Sava Makarenko. The first, at the 9:05 mark, was unassisted and the second, on the power play with 1:31 left in the opening stanza, was assisted by Angelo Donzella and Tim Hayden. Unfortunately, after the Makarenko goals the Sea Captains offense would be held in check until the last minute of the game while Danbury lit the lamp three more times in between the Norwich goals to earn the win on their home ice.
Danbury scored a rush goal seconds after a Norwich penalty expired and then a second power play goal on a tipped point shot in the second period to take a 3-2 lead after forty minutes of play. Then despite consistent pressure on the Danbury net the Jr Hat Tricks scored the first goal of the third period with 3:07 remaining to take an important two-goal lead. Chris Hamilton collected a turnover and rifled the puck past the Danbury netminder with :47 left to play to get the Sea Captains within one, but Danbury held on for the 4-3 win.
Andrew Yocum was the hard luck loser in the Norwich net. He made 18 saves and had little opportunity on the Danbury goals. Both teams had seven power play opportunities, but Danbury converted on two while Norwich was only able to cash in one.
“I have to give full credit to Danbury for taking advantage of every opportunity tonight. We have struggled to play a clean game in the our second outing of weekends and that trend continued tonight. Our penalties and turnovers setup the Danbury offense and they capitalized,” said Norwich Head Coach Kevin Cunningham.
The Sea Captains return to the road for their only game this week when they travel to Holyoke, MA to take on the Bay State Bobcats at 5:30 PM on Friday, November 4. Norwich’s next home game will be on Friday, November 11 when they host the Northeast Generals for Military Appreciation Night with a 7:30 PM opening faceoff. You can get your tickets for the game HERE. The Sea Captains players and staff will be hosting a youth hockey clinic that afternoon at the RoseGarden Ice Arena as well. All players who attend will get a FREE ticket to that evening’s game! You can register for the clinic HERE.