By David Dell
PORT HURON- The Prowlers have moved on to the second round of the Commissioner’s Cup championship for the first time since the 2017-2018 campaign and took on the Empire Division champion Binghamton Black Bears Friday night at McMorran Arena.
Despite being the 3rd seed against Binghamton’s 1st seed ranking both teams were relatively close in most stats in a Tale of the Tape comparison. The Black Bears were far ahead in points and win/loss, but other stats had less discrepancy. The game started looking like a Pitcher’s Dual until 11:20 of the first period when Tyler Fox (2nd of the playoffs) got things started for Port Huron. In a mucked in defensive zone, a steal by Drew Welsch who brought the puck through traffic deep along the left-wing boards got a clean pass to Fox just outside the slot who was able to go back door on Connor McAnanama to turn on the lamp. The shots on goal were in favor of Binghamton 11-10 but the difference after 20 minutes was the goal on the HOME side of the score board.
Bryan Parsons and Austin Thompson dropped the gloves at 17:43 with Fighting majors awarded in an otherwise pedestrian second period where shots were even at 9 each, with none of them making it into either team’s cage.
The Prowlers controlled the first few minutes of the final frame when Jamie Bucell drew a Roughing call and Zac Sirota, a Slashing call at 6:21. Skating 4 on 4, allowed Bobby Price (4th of the playoffs) to take an ice wide pass from Brett Lockhart inside the Port Huron zone, skate around a couple of Black Bears, center up on the slot and charging towards the goal, beat McAnanama low to double up the score 2-0. The even strength goal coming at 6:46 of the period. Binghamton got 8 of their 12 shots in the period in the next 8 minutes but as he did last Sunday in Danbury, Reid Cooper was a brick wall turning away good scoring chances in the quest for the win. Port Huron had a power play opportunity on a Bench Minor at 14:39 but was unable to capitalize. The Black Bears pulled the goalie for an extra attacker at 17:11 but again Cooper would yield to no one. After the Bears time out, with their net still empty, Timothy Organ was able to swat the puck out of the zone where Dakota Bohn misplayed it at the Binghamton blueline forcing a bad pass that Price (5th of the playoffs) was able to snag, and deposit with a simple flick of the wrist for the 3-0 insurance goal at 18:45. Binghamton’s Gavin Yates chirped a zebra for an Abuse of Official with under 5 minutes remaining to be shown the gate with the Misconduct infraction. Seven seconds later Fox and Josh Fletcher were awarded Unsportsmanlike minors and Scott Ramaekers picked up a Slashing call. The resulting powerplay was perfect for killing of the remaining 1:07 of regulation. Dan Weiber drew a Delay of Game/Shooting the puck into the spectator area at the horn resulting in an injury to a spectator.
The win by the Prowlers handed Binghamton their first post season loss since the 2022-2023 season and put the Prowlers one win away from appearing in the Finals, for the first time since 2017-2018. Reid Cooper posted his first professional shut out stopping all 30 shots on goal, giving him a two-game total from last Sunday in Danbury, Connecticut of 79 stops on 82 shots. This is Port Huron’s second franchise shut out in the play offs, the first coming in 2017-2018 by Michael Santaguida.
The Continental Division race is down to game 3 of 3 between the Carolina Thunderbirds and the Georgia Riverdragons who have one win each in their series. Port Huron travels to Binghamton, New York for game 2 and if needed game 3 Sunday April 27.
The Prowlers play in the Empire Division of the Federal Prospects Hockey League, now in its’ 15th year.
