Ice Flyers Sign Gerry Festa and August Aiken

[chilly666]

Pensacola, Fla. - The Pensacola Ice Flyers have signed goalie Gerry Festa and forward August Aiken in time for their three-game weekend that begins tonight in Columbus, GA.

Festa brings AA experience to the Ice Flyers as he played two and a half seasons with the Missouri Mavericks of the Central Hockey League (CHL) before finishing up last season with the league champions, Fort Wayne Komets. This season, he started the season with the Dayton Demonz of the Federal Hockey League (FHL) and was playing for the Bloomington Blaze in the CHL as of late.

"I'm very familiar with Gerry and what he'll bring to our team this season," Ice Flyers' head coach Gary Graham commented. "He's a blue-collar, hard-working player that competes night in and night out. I plan to create a healthy competitive environment for Gerry and Ross MacKinnon that will help push each other as well as help take our team to the next level as we enter the second half of the season."

Aiken joins the Ice Flyers after spending the first couple months of the season getting healthy after being place on the injured reserve list while at the CHL's Utah Grizzlies training camp.

Last season with the Louisiana IceGators, Aiken put up 17 goals and 18 assists for 35 points in 52 games. He was a part of the deal that moved Matt Robertson to the Louisiana in the off-season.

"August has excellent open-ice speed with a quick release. He's a player that can put up numbers and adds a lot of depth to our forward lines. We weren't sure if he was going to be in an Ice Flyers' jersey this season, but we are happy he is here. Adding a player like Aiken part way through the season is going to help our team in the second half.