By David Dell
PORT HURON- Following a decisive win over the Topeka Scarecrows Friday night the Prowlers looked to boost their record in game two against the straw stuffed skaters, and they didn’t disappoint.
As was the case Friday, both teams wasted very little time in getting down to fisticuffs. Veteran Justin Schmidt with 100s of professional fights stood up for Topeka and Rookie AJ Schlepp answered the bell for the home team. 28 seconds in and the gloves were dropped. 35 seconds later with no decision called, their dance was finished. Schlepp got the Fighting major while Schmidt a Fighting major and a misconduct for Continuing an Altercation.
Avery Smith, a thorn in every opponent’s side prevented a second shutout in as many nights when he beat Reid Cooper on the powerplay. Captain Austin Fetterly was called for Cross Checking at 3:59 and Smith took advantage scoring at 4:43. The teams’ continued pushing, shoving, slashing and cross checking after the whistle with a frozen puck, led to Fetterly, Player Coach Matt Graham, Jakub Volk, and Elijah Wilson all picking up Roughing calls at 8:23. Lukas Lacny inadvertently put the puck over the glass for Delay of Game at 17:28 and Graham went off ice at 19:01 to give Topeka the 3-5 advantage at 19:01. Wilson then padded the Scarecrow lead 2-0, 16 seconds later to close out the period. The Prowlers outshot Topeka 18-12.
Quinn O’Reilly and Ben Brockway squared off for a fight at 3:07 of the middle stanza, far behind the play. This match up resulted in more wrestling on the ice than punches being thrown but nevertheless both got five minutes. A tick past the 12-minute mark Graham (2nd of the season) cut Topeka’s lead in half. Brett Lockhart went cross ice at the blue line to Brockway who let rip a shot. The puck was given a redirect by Graham, standing at the edge of the goal. At 17:17 Port Huron caught the Scarecrows’ defence deeply out of position allowing a long lead pass from Player Coach Alex Johnson to feed Reggie Millett on the right-wing side of the offensive zone. With plenty of time behind the defense, Millett went cross ice to Arttu Heikkila (4th of the season) who hammered home the tying marker past Danill Bryzgolov high on the stick side. The Goal Judge said good, but the Referee waved it off almost instantaneously. After further review it was ruled a good goal, and the score was tied at 2. Not a half-minute later Lacny put the puck to the front of the net, Bryan Parsons ripped one into Bryzgolov’s pads where Graham (3rd of the season) collected the rebound for his 2nd of the night putting Port Huron up for the first time in the night. Topeka tested Cooper a dozen times again this period while the Prowlers got 13 shots on goal.
The closely contested game would tighten more in the last frame. Connor Lind evened things up for the Scarecrows at 12:37. Each team would get 3 chances to regain the lead before Zach Papapetros’s Slashing minor at 16:00 and Alex Norwinski’s Delay of Game at 17:32 gave Port Huron a 5-3 advantage. Fetterly (1st of the season) used that opportunity to pot the game winner. He, Johnson, and Millett moved the puck back and forth across the top of the zone until Fetterly found his lane and sent a hard wrister that found twine. Topeka pulled Bryzgalov at 19:39 but were unable to get any traction with the extra man. The Prowlers came out on top with 42-32 shots on goal and win number 5 in 6 outings.
Reid Cooper is tied for first place with 4 wins, but this game showed that the Prowlers put in a Total Team Effort. Battling back from a two-goal deficit early in the game Associate Head Coach Chris Paulin said in his post-game presser ““It was a gutty win. Things weren’t going our way in the first, there was no flow to the game, and we were battling through it. In the second period, we really took over the game.”
The Prowlers will be home Friday and Saturday Halloween weekend for a pair against the two-time defending Commissioner’s Cup champion Binghamton Black Bears. Puck drop at 7:05 on the 31st with trick-or-treating beforehand, and then again on the 1st.
Port Huron holds second place in the Empire Division with a 5-1-0 record.
The Port Huron Prowlers, now in their 11th consecutive season, are the longest tenured team in the FPHL.
