Facing a 3–0 deficit late in the third period, the Danbury Hat Tricks showed late life as Kai Elkie and Patrick Ula found the back of the net, but the rally came up short in a 4–2 loss to the Elmira Aviators on Friday night.
Elmira’s Yianni Koukouves scored twice, while former Hat Trick Evan Dantas chipped in a pair of assists. Two of the Aviators’ four goals came on the power play.
After a scoreless opening period, Danbury took an early penalty just 1:15 into the second, and Elmira capitalized quickly. Matt Maglio kept the puck in at the far-side point, bounced it off the boards to himself, stepped around a defender and snapped a shot from inside the faceoff circle past Jon Dukaric for his 13th goal of the season.
Koukouves doubled the lead at 14:22 of the middle frame when Jack Kohlmann worked the puck down the near boards and slid a centering pass through the slot to Koukouves, who finished from the back door to make it 2–0.
Early in the third, a Danbury interference penalty proved costly. With under a minute remaining on the power play, Koukouves struck again, wiring a wrist shot from the near-side faceoff dot that beat Dukaric short side to push the Aviators’ lead to 3–0.
Elkie broke Elmira’s shutout bid with 6:34 remaining, collecting a loose puck at center ice, cutting toward the net, and sliding the puck through Aiden McKenna for his 13th of the season. Ula pulled Danbury within one at 18:41, snapping a wrist shot high glove side from the far circle to make it 3–2.
Elmira sealed the result with an empty-net goal from Kohlmann with 21 seconds remaining.
Dukaric finished with 20 saves on 24 shots, while McKenna turned aside 20 of 22. Danbury will look to bounce back in game two of the weekend series. Click HERE for the complete box score.