EPHL Weekly Roundup Sees Brooklyn Aces Atop the Standings

Eastern Professional Hockey League Notebook #3 (First place Brooklyn Aces have been dominant in the early going) Three weeks into the 2008-09 Eastern Professional Hockey League season and the Brooklyn Aces are putting it all together. The Aces are in first place in the EPHL with a record of four wins and only one loss. They have defeated the other three EPHL teams and have outscored their opponents 28 to 17. This week, the first place Aces host the Jersey Rockhoppers on Friday and then travel up to Poughkeepsie on Saturday to face the Hudson Valley Bears.

Last Week in Review Brooklyn went 2-0 on home ice defeating Hudson Valley 7-6 on Friday and Danbury 7-1 on Saturday. The Jersey Rockhoppers improved to 2-1-0 on the season winning 10-4 over Hudson Valley on Saturday night in Newburgh. The Danbury Mad Hatters (0-1) and Hudson Valley (0-2) were winless for the week.

The EPHL Week Ahead Friday 11/21: Jersey Rockhoppers @ Brooklyn Aces (7:30pm) Saturday 11/22: Danbury Mad Hatters @ Jersey Rockhoppers (7:30pm) Saturday 11/22: Brooklyn Aces @ Hudson Valley Bears (7:30pm) (@ Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie, New York)

EPHL Player of the Week Brooklyn Aces forward James Brannigan has been named the Eastern Professional Hockey League Player of the Week. The Brooklyn native leads the EPHL in scoring with 8 goals & 3 assists for 11 points in 5 games. This past week, Brannigan tallied four goals, including the EPHL’s first hat trick on Saturday 11/15, and added an assist for five points. James played college hockey at Colorado College and played briefly last year in the ECHL with both Augusta and Columbia.

EPHL Goaltender of the Week For the second time in three weeks, Eddie Neville of Brooklyn is the Eastern Professional Hockey League Goaltender of the Week. The Ozone Park, New York native stopped 38 of 39 shots in the Aces 7-1 victory over Danbury on 11/15. On the year, Neville is 2-1-0 and leads the league in both goals against average (2.35) and save percentage (93.7%).

EPHL Notes This Friday (11/22), former New York Ranger Nick Fotiu will join the Brooklyn Aces as a Guest Assistant Coach when the Aces host Jersey at Aviator Sports & Recreation. Game time is 7:30pm. Fotiu will drop the ceremonial first puck and will be signing autographs.....The Jersey Rockhoppers have announced that due to holiday conflicts at the Essex County Richard J. Codey Arena at South Mountain their home game scheduled for Thursday 11/27 vs. Danbury will be re-scheduled to a new date which will be announced in the near future. Both the Jersey Rockhoppers and Essex County Richard J. Codey Arena apologize for any inconvenience.....Can a hockey team have two home openers? Well the Hudson Valley Bears will when they play their first home game in Poughkeepsie this Saturday night (11/22) at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center. Last Saturday night, the Bears played the first of 15 games in Newburgh at the Ice Time Sports Complex. Hudson Valley will play ten games in Poughkeepsie this season.....The Danbury Mad Hatters have announced a “Guaranteed Win Night” for Wednesday 11/26. If the Mad Hatters lose, all fans in attendance can exchange their ticket stub for one free ticket for the Mad Hats Thursday 12/11 home game. If Danbury wins on “Guaranteed Win Night”, everyone in attendance will receive a coupon for a free hot dog which can be redeemed at any Mad Hatters home game.....the EPHL Board of Governors has announced the 2008-2009 Playoff Format. The first and second place regular season teams will play a best of five Eastern Professional Hockey League Championship Series scheduled to begin around March 26^th, 2009.

EPHL Real Time Stats by LeagueStat.com are available at www.ephl.com.

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