By David Dell
PORT HURON- While Friday night’s game took the full 60 minutes for a Prowlers victory, Saturday night needed an extra 50 seconds into overtime. Port Huron hosted the Mississippi Sea Wolves out of Biloxi, Mississippi this weekend for their first visit up north. The Prowlers bested the Sea Wolves 7-6 on Friday. Last night, Mississippi again erased a 3-point deficit to make the game close.
Brandon Picard (3rd of the season) started the scoring for Port Huron, bringing the puck up along the left-side boards. With Dalton Jay trailing on the right wing, Joseph Sheppard had to decide which side of the net to guard but standing fast in the middle of the crease, Picard wristed the puck over the netminder’s glove hand to snipe the upper corner of the goal. Brian Parsons had won the defensive zone face-off fed, Dalton Anderson who moved it on to Picard, got the assists right on the four-minute mark of the first stanza. A handful of minor penalties for both teams would fill the rest of the period before Braden Deck lit his first professional goal lamp with 1:36 left to play. Matt Graham swept an offensive zone face-off on the left side back to Deck standing at the top of the slot. Wasting no time in grabbing the puck let fly a 45-foot shot that beat goalie Liam Murray who came in, in relief of Sheppard. The Prowlers would end the period up 2-0 and 14-9 advantage in shots on goal.
Mississippi went short-handed with Phillip Wong serving an Interference minor, and Sam Marit (2nd of the season) boosted the score with another red lamp. David Gaeta tried stuffing the puck in at the edge of the crease but Sheppard who came back into the game, deflected it to the top of the crease where Marit was there to flip it into the net at 1:29. The rest of the period would be controlled by the Sea Wolves. Mississippi’s Phillip Wong picked a pair of minors for Boarding and Cross-Checking but Port Huron couldn’t take advantage of the situation. Liam Murray came in for his second stint in the game the Prowlers drew a pair of minors. Brandon Picard for Illegal Equipment and Bryan Parsons for Holding. Mississippi was unable to convert. At 8:44 Kyle Russell would get the Sea Wolves on the board even-strength and then at 10:25 Jackson Bond picked up a short-handed goal on Mississippi’s Tyson Lambert who was out for Cross-Checking narrowing the lead 3-2. Mississippi would have control in the offensive zone for a flurry of shots before Joakim Nilsson would tie the game at 18:08. The period would end with Bryan Parsons and Jackson Bond serving Fighting majors and a Cross-Checking minor tacked onto Bond.
The final frame was back and forth with neither team presenting much of a threat until Chuck Costello gave Mississippi their first lead of the weekend. Costello, in much the same manner as Marit, popped a loose puck at the top of the crease for the score at 5:27. The end-to-end play continued for another 8 minutes until the Sea Wolves came unglued. Prowler Braden Deck was called for Interference and Hugo Koch drew a pair of minors for Holding and Roughing. Simultaneously former Prowler Joe Pace Jr. received 7 minutes and a game ejection for Instigator (2 minutes), Fighting (5 minutes) and Continuing an Altercation. Pace was seen throwing Vince Dekumbis to the ice and then bouncing him around before a linesman intervened. The Prowlers started a seven-minute power play (2 and 5), 5 on 3, with 7:03 left in regulation. They collected three 5 on 3 goals Friday night so they knew how it’s done. Port Huron pulled Makar Sokolov with 00:51 left in regulation and seconds later Connor Lind would draw an Unsportsmanlike Conduct minor. With Sokolov out for the extra attacker, the Prowlers would skate 6 on 3. In the same play that worked so well Friday night, Matt Graham fed the puck across the crease to Tristan Simm (3rd of the season) who was waiting on the back door to hammer in the tying goal with 14 seconds left to play. Pace’s Fighting Major would run for 11 of those scant seconds leaving Port Huron on the power play through regulation and into Overtime. Matt Graham and Austin Fetterly tagged the puck across the ice before Fetterly fired a rising puck toward goal. Murray was able to stop the shot but the rebound came out to Vincent Dekumbis who jammed it home for the win with 4:08 left in overtime.
Port Huron finished undefeated in franchise history against the Mississippi Sea Wolves and improved to 2-1-1 sitting one place ahead of Mississippi based on head-to-head record. The Prowlers are off this coming weekend but will play a home-and-home series against rival Fraser Motor City Rockers on 10, and 11 November. Friday the 10th will be their first road game in Fraser before coming back to McMorran on the 11th for Veteran’s Day. The Prowlers will be auctioning off specially designed sweaters honoring our veterans, on Saturday night. Game time is 6:05. Friday’s game will begin at 7:35 in Fraser.