By David Dell
PORT HURON- Wearing festive St. Patrick Day sweaters, the Prowlers didn’t need the Luck of the Irish Saturday night against the Motor City Rockers out of Fraser, Michigan. Port Huron was finishing their home and home series against the Rockers continuing on the Battle of I-94 between the two teams that began in Fraser’s expansion year, 2022-2023.
Friday night’s game “down the road” resulted in a 6-2 win over Fraser to secure a spot in the playoffs and inch ever closer to having the upper hand in the Battle of I-94. Saturday night the Prowlers looked to keep their foot on the gas and jumped out to a 4-0 lead less than halfway through the opening stanza. Tucker Scantlebury (18th of the season) back to the team after a short call up to the Southern Professional Hockey League, started things off at 1:36 with a powerplay goal while Hunter Hall sat for Boarding, ironically against Scantlebury, only a minute earlier to start the game. Reggie Millette and Brett Lockhart assisted with passes in the Port Huron zone to Scantlebury who went blue line to the slot and ripped a shot that beat Ricardo Gonzales for the marker. Austin Fetterly lost the puck, but it came right back to him, and he hit Lukas Lacny (16th of the season) on the left wing. Skating in unopposed he brought the puck back between his legs to avoid Gonzales poke check in close, and went five-hole, at 3:16. At 8:58, after Valterri Nousiainen made a pair of rapid fire shaves to keep the Rockers off the Big Board, Lacny centered from along the left wall to the slot where Ludwig Thellstrom (7th of the season) was waiting to put it past Gonzales’ blocker to run the score up 3-0. At 9:35 Reggie Millette let fly a bullet shot that hit the netminder square in the chest. The uncontrolled rebound got Player Coach Matt Graham (18th of the season) square in the chest but he had enough room to then redirect it into a virtually empty net for tally for the Prowlers. Port Huron dominated control of the puck with a 17-7 shots on goal total for the period.
Down 4-0 to start the middle frame, Fraser cut the lead in half with a pair of goals, one coming on the powerplay. Their first score was at 2:39 even strength then things got heated. The first altercation of the night started at 9:34 between Tucker Scantlebury and Tristan Wells. Wells started the fray with Slashing and drew a Fighting major as well. Scantlebury got a Fighting major and 10-minute misconduct for Continuing an Altercation. Number two came at 14:24 between Adam Heinzl and Jameson Milam while on a Fraser powerplay against Dylan Marty sitting for Cross Checking. Heinzl was ultimately charged with Instigating and Fighting while Milam just fought. Brett Lockhart gave the visitors a new powerplay opportunity at 14:49 for Slashing and they cashed in to cut the lead to two. Again, the Prowlers held the Rockers to just 7 shots on goal.
Lukas Lacny (17th of the season) got his stick on an attempt to clear at the top of the left wing faceoff circle and firing through traffic put the puck over Gonzales’ glove hand shoulder to start off the third period at 2:34 on the powerplay and then at 5:17 he registered his 18th of the season even strength to bring out the hats for the Prowlers’ second hat trick of the season. Reggie Millette brought the puck up from behind the Fraser goal to the just left of the slot, got it across ice to Lacny who in going to his knees put the one-timer on Gonzales’ stick which then deflected into the upper corner of the net, restoring the four-goal lead, 6-2. The Rockers had a goal waved off almost immediately upon the puck crossing the goal line at 11:35 but a Thellstrom Tripping call put them back on the powerplay. Jameson Milam took less than a minute to cut the Prowlers lead in half again with a goal, making it 6-3. Jamie Bucell (16th of the season) was the intended target of a lead in pass from Austin Fetterly and it was almost intercepted by a Rocker, but Bucell was able to corral the puck and in the process of being tripped, found the back of the net to restore the four-point lead 7-3 at 18:21.
At the end of 60 minutes the Prowlers’ win gave them their first Battle of I-94 trophy and ceremonial highway sign for the interstate. Motor City Rockers won the trophy in the inaugural and second year of the battle. Port Huron’s 5th win in a row is currently the longest winning streak in the league. They will play host to one game next Friday against the Poughkeepsie (New York) Venom. The Venom have beaten the Prowlers by one goal in each of their three previous games.
The Prowlers play in the Empire Division of the Federal Prospects Hockey League, now in its’ 15th year.
