WPCNR PRESS BOX. By John F. Bailey. October 16, 2004: Danbury, Connecticut got its first professional sports team Friday evening, and brought hockey-starved fans the shiver of the crunch into the boards, the electric thrill of the kick-save-and-a-beauty, and the intricate beauty of the power play as the Danbury Trashers, big, rangy and fast and well-coached held off the high flying Adirondack Frostbite at the cheery Danbury Ice Arena.

HIGHWAY ROBBERY IN DANBURY: Trashers Scott Stirling robs Frostbite's Rob Gardner(25) on a penalty shot try in the Opening Stanza. Stirling, poised, cobra like refused to be drawn out and smothered Gardner's backhander. Photo by WPNR Sports.

The SRO crowd of approximately 2,000 fans delighted in the artful netminding of 6-2 205 pound Scott Stirling who turned away 31 shots and made a 2-1 lead stand up for two periods. The Trashers are big, rangy, beefy and amazing fast. They play disciplined position hockey herd around the goaltender like nimble buffalo and hit with the force of dumpsters on skates. They pushed the Frostbite around in the First Period, then held off challenge after challenge in a scoreless third stanza. The United Hockey League opener was entertaining end-to-end hockey, reminiscent of the way the game used to be when the Flying Frenchmen of legend swept down the ice.

GOALLLLLLLLL! Blake Bellefeuille, in "Evil Empire Black" to left of goal has just stuffed the puck inbetween the legs of Frostbite goaltender Derek Gustafson, after taking a feed from The Little Great One, Brent Gretsky, foreground to score the first-ever Trasher goal at 5:25 of the First Period. Trashers coralled a loose puck, Gretsky shoveled it to Blake who walked in between the circles cut in front and poked it through Gustafson's pads. Photo by WPCNR Sports.

The Trashers got their second goal at 15:49, when Mike Bayrack in the last 5 seconds of a Trasher power play rifled home a pass from Bruce Richardson after Nick Bilotto started the play. The Trasher power play, disciplined, relentless for this early in the season could give the New York Rangers a clinic.

The first period saw the Danbury "Dumpsters" drop heavy loads on the Frostbite, pushing the lighter, faster Dacksters resoundingly into the boards, spinning them to the ice and keeping play deep in the Adirondack end, peppering the nimble Gastafson with 13 shots, 2 going in. There were frequent stoppages of play with 10 penalties called, five on each club.

In the second period, the Frostbite came out with a lot more swaggAH and style. Richard Boryczki, The Voice of the Adirondack Frostbite, covering the game for radio back to the "DAKS", in his second year of doing radio for them, observed,

"It seemed like they (The Frostbite) came out a lot more physical and that the offense was just pumped up. I noticed guys like Scott Drevitch, Bruce Garner and Hugo Belanger being more physical and that's usually not their style of play. But they were getting out there. I think Coach Marc Potvin said to them probably you got to toughen up you got  to push these guys around and don't let them push you around. And Adirondack really came out and did that the second two periods. The Trashers did play really well tonight. They're a very physical team. They stopped Adirondack many times. Danbury had a lot of opportunities in the last two periods, but Adirondack's Gustafson and the Frostbite defense came up pretty good. This was a pretty good game and I'm looking forward to seeing the two teams battle throughout the season."

WINGFIELD- PAGE: Thriller in the Circle. Brad Wingfield and Scott Page (inWhite), dropped the gloves and discussed goalie-running in the first three minutes of the second period. Photo by WPCNR Sports.

The new aggressiveness of the Frostbite lead to their only goal after a real hockey fight, reminiscent of the Red Wing Gordie Howe- Ranger Lou Fontinato matchup back in 1958. 

The Frostbite laid a flurry on the Trashers early in the second period, and suddenly there was Trashman Brad Wingfield (# 42), and the Frosties' Scott Page dropping their gloves and swinging, blade to blade, while  linesmen watched. (No fools they.)

 It was a great fight with heavyweight dumpster, Brad Wingfield (who looks a lot like White Plains Police Commissioner, Frank Straub) at 6-0 and 220 giving away two inches in height, but outweighing Page by 15 pounds. In three minutes of more action than you'll see in any professional fight, Wingfield got in a couple of crushing haymakers and got Page down to the ice.

Wingfield, who is BIG, (there is not one small Trasher except for # 19 Jim Duhart)  told WPCNR after the game what starts these fights:

"I had some words with the guy that ran our goalie earlier, and the guy, (Page) sort of stepped in for him and away it went. It doesn't always take a lot in a hockey game especially when you're excited for the first game ever in franchise history. You have to step up and do it. It;s a dirty job but it can be a lot of fun."

Brad Wingfield signing autographs after the game for young fans with former Ranger from Nigeria, Roman Ndur, left. Wingfield had a lot of fun last night, picking up three minors and the fighting penalty.Photo by WPCNR Sports.

Then, right off the faceoff after the fight, the puck came to Bruce Gardner who whipped a low shot deadon into a melee convering on let, straight into the lower leftcorner past Stirling to make it 2-1. The Frostbite came close to tying, but never could get the equalizer, giving up an empty netter with 19 seconds to go in the final period. John Morlang fired in the empty netter, to make the final, 3-1, Danbury.

Third Period, end-to-end action.

The Trashers played poised hockey for the final 37 minutes, getting back clearing, bumping Frostbiters out from in front of Stirling. Never losing their poise like some blueshirted NHL teams in the area.

ALL GOALIE. NO NET. Scott Stirling in Goal for the Trashers,wacks away another in the Third Period where he made 15 saves of his 31 stops, many of them at point blank range. Photo by WPCNR Sports.

 However, the Frostbite, flying like the Montreal Canadiens and the legendary Quebec Nordique,  just kept sweeping in for deft backhanders and dead-on shots that Trasher netminder Stirling handled with cat-like almost radar-like perception and reaction. Stirling is the premier goaltender from the ECHL, having won the Goaltender of the Year award in that league twice. The former star from Brown University (1996-2000), Stirling is worth coming out to see. Stirling exudes solidity in goal, closes off the posts and never allows the rebound.

His style is to lurk back deep in the crease not giving any room to the corners, and is blessed with lightning reaction, anticipating the shot and having the patience poise gives, he stopped shot after shot almost as if in slow-motion. He is fast to the stop. And feisty, not hesitating to take a whack with his stick at forwards lurking too close. He even got a high sticking penalty for that in the First Period at 19:21. This was one of the best goaltending performances this reporter has seen in person. His best save came with 7:20 to go in the game when a breakway Frostbiter came in on him swooped to Scott's left and bulleted one low to Scottie's left but he smothered it in his pads. A great save.

ANOTHER KICK SAVE AND A BEAUTY IN THE THIRD PERIOD. Photo by WPCNR Sports.

The crowd saw hockey of the past: hard-hitting, great effort, and very nice offensive rushes. The Trashers mix it in the corners, and showed the ability to throw on the pressure with man-advantage.

They defend the power play well, shutting out the Frostbite six times when a man down.

Danbury plays in Elmira Saturday night, and returns for a Sunday Mantinee at 5:30 P.M. in Danbury against the Fort Wayne Comets. Fans can listen to the action on the internet in Elmira tonight, by going to the Danbury Trashers website at www.danburytrashers.com.