By David Dell
PORT HURON- Following a 10-3 drubbing by the Prowlers on Friday night in Fraser, the Motor City Rockers showed their offense was still trying to play with a blown fuse.
In the second game of the home and home, series the Prowlers hammered Fraser for the second time, starting with a power play goal from Player Coach Matt Graham (21st of the season) at 7:51. Jamie Bucell and Hunter Hall tangled at the Rockers’ blue line and Ryan Rotundi had to join in all with Roughing calls. Graham dug the puck out from the goal line and it moved around to Reggie Millette who fired from the right wing face off circle. The low skimming puck hit Graham’s stick and deflected up and over Ricardo Gonzales shoulder to start the scoring. With a few inconsequential minor penalties in between, Tyler Fox (1st of the season) coming off the bench got a Millette feed pass right in the slot and wasted no time putting up his first professional goal at 17:47. The Prowlers 2-0 lead was the same number of shots on goal Fraser managed in the first frame; two.
Jamie Bucell (13th of the season) didn’t get his second period goal until 7:08 on the Prowlers’ 11 shot, but until that time, Fraser had only had one shot get through to Yoshihiro Kuroiwa in the frame. Bucell picked up a wide shot on goal by Vince Dekumbis and promptly buried it for Port Huron’s 3-0 goal. At 14:33 Reggie Millette (17th of the season) got hit by a pass from Bucell as he stood with his back to the Motor City Rockers’ goal and as the puck fell to the ice, he gave it a backhand whack, where the goal lamp was almost immediately illuminated for a 4-0 lead. Ryan Rotundi was called for Elbowing at 14:46 and Lukas Lacny (19th of the season) made the score 5-0. Millette had a shot blocked by Gonzales from the left side, the rebound came out on the right side. Bryan Parsons collected it, got it to Player Coach Alex Johnson near the blue line who sent it straight down to Lacny in the left wing face off circle who found a hole between Gonzales and the post. Port Huron’s fifth goal was equal to Fraser’s shot total at this point in the game. Tucker Scantlebury picked up double minors for Tripping and Slashing at 18:52 and Rockers Hunter Hall wasted all of four seconds before breaking the shutout at 18:56. It was their seventh shot of the game. The period would end 5-1 in favor of the Prowlers who tested Gonzales 22 times while Motor City Rockers nearly tripled their shot totals with five.
The closing stanza was statistically the closest of the previous 100 minutes of hockey, going back to puck drop Friday night. Port Huron put up just 10 scoring chances to Fraser’s nine, and only two goals to Fraser’s three but Motor City started in a hole for this game and were not able to claw themselves out of it. Graham (22nd of the season) notched his second goal of the game with an even strength tally at 2:00 of the third. Lacny on the left side of the post attempted a Michigan but hit the post with the puck. Graham coming around to the left side from behind took a swing at the loose puck and put it past the netminder to pad the Prowlers’ lead 6-1. Eli Rivers added a Motor City Rockers goal at the 4:00 mark but then another two minutes and change ticked off the clock when Lacny (20th of the season) added a power play goal to restore the 5 goal lead. Johnson got a pass from behind the cage, in the slot. He moved it to the right wing side down deep where Lacny was waiting to light the lamp. The power play goal was on a Magill-Diaz Hooking call. Chris Corgan would add an even strength goal at 8:18 to cut into the lead 7-3 and then the rivalry reared its ugly head. Prowlers’ Brett Lockhart and Rockers’ Rotundi had a fight, Prowlers’ Bucell and Rockers’ Cody Oaks got Rouging calls, with Oaks getting a game misconduct with Ejection for Leaving the Players Bench, all at 13:09. At 13:11, Parsons and Magill-Diaz fought right after a center ice faceoff, and Adam Heinzl drew a Roughing call to Mac Diver’s Cross Checking call. It was a full house in the penalty boxes. At 16:35 Ben Brockway went away for Cross Checking and Fighting, with perpetual nice guy Sam Gagnon. Jameson Milam took advantage of the powerplay at 16:49 to give Fraser another goal but at 7-4 with just over three minutes, the Motor City Rockers were running out of steam. Neither team had anymore to give in the game, and when it ended after 60 minutes, Port Huron dominated the scoring, the shooting and powerplay time. The win was the Prowlers 10th in a row, the league’s current longest win streak and having prospective playoff teams rethink their strategy in the event they face Port Huron in the chase for the Commissioner’s Cup championships.
Port Huron’s record of 25-16-6 cements them in third place, just 3 points behind Danbury Hat Tricks. They head to Winston-Salem for a pair of games against the Carolina Thunderbirds April 4th and 5th before ending the regular season the following weekend with another home and home series with the Motor City Rockers.
The Prowlers play in the Empire Division of the Federal Prospects Hockey League, now in its’ 15th year.
