Prowlers Sweep Season Series From Zydeco

The Port Huron Prowlers completed their season-series sweep over the Baton Rouge Zydeco with a 4-2 win at the Raising Cane’s River Center on April 6. The Prowlers finished 4-0-0 against the Zydeco this season with all four games played in Baton Rouge.

“We talked last weekend that we need to start coming into these games expecting to win,” said Prowlers head coach Matt Graham. “Since we started talking about that, we’re 4-0. It’s an expectation, a feeling that the group gets and it’s a sense of confidence.”

Port Huron opened the scoring just over nine minutes into the game when the puck took a strange bounce off the zamboni door. Dalton Jay was the only one who knew where it was and he found Tristan Simm skating down the slot for a one-timer that found the back of the net. Jay extended his assist streak to a season-high four games.

With less than three to play in the opening period, Conor Foley moved in on a two-on-one rush and sent a pass to Brett Lockhart who slid home his first pro goal. 

Just over a minute into the middle frame, Vincent Dekumbis tapped in a back-door dish from Alex Johnson moments after Dekumbis was robbed by John Moriarty on a chance from the slot. The goal was Dekumbis’ sixth of the season and he’s scored in each of his last three games.

Baton Rouge pushed back in the third as Noah Robinson scored a pair of power-play goals 1:37 apart to reach the 20-goal plateau for the season. All three goals the Zydeco scored in the two-game series this weekend came on the man advantage.

That tally gave the home fans some life and their team some momentum but Jake Vaughan put an end to that just over three minutes later with a wrister from the left-wing faceoff circle.

“When you give a team life like that, they’re going to put their foot on the gas and start to get some momentum going,” Graham said. “I thought our response to that was good. We stayed unwavered, we collected ourselves. One of the messages tonight was to value puck possession and I thought we did that after the surge of momentum from them and we ended up burying a goal.”

10 Prowlers recorded a point in the game while Oscar Wahlgren made 33 saves for his second win. Port Huron has tied a season high with four-straight victories.

Robinson’s pair of goals led the way for Baton Rouge. Moriarty stopped 30 shots and is still looking for his first win as a pro.

The Prowlers wrap up the regular season with a home and home against the Motor City Rockers on April 12 and 13. The first game is fan appreciation night at McMorran Place and tickets are available at phprowlers.com/tickets.