By David Dell
BILOXI, MISSISSIPPI- The Seawolves, under the direction of new coach Joe Pace Sr., returned to their old ways of aggressive borderline dirty play. There was a lot of mucking it up, which brought a multitude of roughing minors through the entire game.Â
The Prowlers struck first however with Captain Evan Foley (2nd of the season) finding the back of the net from in close on a cross-crease pass from Dan Chartrand at 13:02 of the first period. The aforementioned aggressive play would manifest itself the first time at 14:13 when Liam Freeborn deep in the Seawolves zone, came to a halt as Brandon Picard was just a half-step ahead of the puck on an offside whistle. Mississippi’s Phillip Wong and Joe Pace Jr. carried the play after the fact. Freeborn was cross-checked to the back of the head by Pace, as Bryan Parsons came into the defense of his forward. At the end of the melee, Freeborn and Parsons would draw Roughing minors along with the Seawolves’ Wong, Pace, and Tyson Lambert. The Port Huron powerplay was thwarted with a Brandon Picard Tripping minor at 15:39 although neither team had much in the way of quality scoring opportunities. The home team was outshot 13-8 to end the frame.
Period two started strong for Port Huron, controlling the play in the offensive zone when Dan Chartrand (1st of the season) made his mark in the books. Bryan Parsons made a cross-ice pass from the left-wing boards to find Chartrand all alone just right of the slot who quickly timed a shot over Mississippi’s Joseph Sheppard’s glove hand for a bottle popper. Tucker Scantlebury began the play for the second helper with the red light coming on at 5:10 to put the Prowlers on top 2-0. Lucas Helland’s Slash drew the ire of Matt Graham and they both were sent off for two minutes, Graham being called for Roughing as he retaliated against the offense. One minute into those penalties Jackson Bond picked up a minor cross-checking deep in the Port Huron corners to put the visitors on a 4 on 3 powerplay. Austin Fetterly and Brandon Picard got assists as they fed Alex Johnson (4th of the season) high in the slot who wristed the puck through traffic to beat Sheppard for the third time in the game. Johnson’s power-play goal was his third in as many games. Just after the third media time-out Prowlers’ Bryan Parsons drew a Holding minor at 15:01 and the Seawolves’ Phillip Wong wasted no time gathering their first tally of the night at 15:16. Two minutes later the Seawolves’ Danny Liscio cut the Prowlers lead down to 3 to 2 with his lamp lighter at 17:18. Liscio skated the puck in on the left-wing and with an ice-skimming shot beat Tucker Tynan just between the post and his pad. Mississippi managed to cut deep into the Prowler’s lead but still fell short in shots 9 to 14 for the period.
Shortly after the puck drop to start the third, Bryan Parsons and Jackson Bond went after each other and drew Roughing penalties at 1:37. At 3:28 Mississippi’s Hugo Koch picked up a Roughing penalty while Liam Freeborn was whistled for Roughing and Unsportsmanlike Conduct as he yanked Koch’s helmet off in retaliation. Play was up and down the ice until Yianni Liarakos, scored on a fluke redirect off the back of Tynan’s skate to knot the game at three each. Jackson Bond put the Seawolves up 4-3 on a messy goal from a loose puck in the crease that Port Huron just could not get a handle on. More penalties ensued at 8:45 with a Charging call on the Seawolves’ Lucas Helland, Justin Barr drew an Unsportsmanlike Conduct while Tucker Scantlebury got an Unsportsmanlike Conduct minor as well. With under five minutes remaining, Wong and Parsons traded Tripping and Slashing minors respectively with nothing coming of the more open ice of 4 on 4 hockey. Port Huron pulled Tucker Tynan for the extra attacker at 1:02 remaining but he returned after a Tyson Lambert, Tucker Scantlebury Fighting major call at 19:08.
The Mississippi Seawolves recorded their first franchise win over the Prowlers in front of a reported 2,795 fans. Port Huron certainly had the scoring chance advantage 37-27 but just wasn’t able to break through. They fall one game back of Mississippi to fourth place with a 3-4-1-1 record in the Continental Division. Both teams will be back at it Saturday night with a 6:05 Central Time puck drop.
