Third Period Surge and Alistratov's Net-Minding Bring Wolves Win over Titans

By Jay Harris 

It was a battle for third place in the Federal Hockey League standings when the Watertown Wolves battled the Danbury Titans at the Watertown Municipal Arena Saturday night. The Titans held the seating prior to the start of the game by .08 of a percentage point over the Wolves. If the Wolves take the win, the move in to third place. Wolves fans would miss the presence of Jason Dolgy as he was not in the lineup for the game. 

Goalies Danilla Allistratov and Nick Niedert stood their ground and were impenetrable walls the first period. Danilla blocked 13 shots from Danbury and Niedert blocked 14 from the Wolves. Tensions rose as an altercation broke out between Jeremy Akeson and Sean Maktaak. At the end of the scoreless first period a scuffle started between Shane Halaas and Matt Graham that the officials ended quickly. 

Scott Roy put the Wolves on the board first with his goal assisted by Kyle Powell and Ryan Connolly. Danilla Allistratov denied all of Danbury's 15 shots on goal in the period. 

The Wolves lit up the boards in the third period. Kyle Powel tickled twine on a goal assisted by Scott Roy and Jeremy Akeson. Kyllian Kirkwood showed Watertown's defense can score too when he made a goal with the assists from Assistant Captain Justin Blaszak and Jesse Facchini. Captain Brett Liscomb and Ryan Connolly set Jesse Facchini up to get the final goal of the game on the empty net. Danilla Allistratov would keep Watertown's net empty to help bring the Wolves to a 4-0 victory and earn his first shutout in the Federal Hockey League. 

In a post-game conversation with Head Coach Phil Esposito he had the following comments; "I'm kind of at a loss for words right now because we went in with a 1-0 lead in the third period. I had a talk with the guys after the second period about us developing a sort of a system or some sort of pattern here of putting teams away that we haven't been doing in the past. Before you know it, we were fighting for our lives at the end of the game. It was one of the things I talked to the guys about. I tried to get the guys to understand we need to put teams away. Tonight was one of those nights where we came out and did it. It was a good learning curve for us. I think it's going to be better for us to start doing that as we head to the home stretch for the playoffs."            

Danilla Allistratov's shut out deservedly earned him the first star of the game. Second star went to Scott Roy who gave the team the momentum to blow it up in third period with his goal in the second period. Kyle Powell's goa and assist earned him the third star of the game.           

Tonight's win has moved the Watertown Wolves into third place in the Federal Hockey League standings. The Wolves next home game will be on Friday, March 24th in a rematch against the Danbury Titans. The puck will drop at 7:30pm.