Anderson's Hat Trick Leads Prowlers Past Bobcats

Blake Anderson scored a natural hat trick to boost the Prowlers to a 4-1 win over the Blue Ridge Bobcats on November 21 in Wytheville, Virginia. The hat trick was the first of Anderson’s career.

“I’m feeling good,” Anderson said. “I’m handling the puck well, I’m seeing the ice well. I’m excited and ready to go [for tomorrow].” 

The scoring began with a first pro marker. Nick Favaro started a rush and Brett Morich entered the offensive zone, flew right down the middle and netted his first past Hunter Virostek’s glove. 

“He’s someone who competes extremely hard on and off the ice,” said Prowlers associate head coach Chris Paulin. “He’s always in the gym, he skates twice a day for the most part and he’s been studying a lot.”

Anderson started his scoring two minutes later as he diced through the Blue Ridge defense and snuck a backhander under Virostek’s arm.

In the second, Alex Johnson delayed until Vincent Dekumbis could join the rush. He then found Anderson streaking to the blue paint and put a perfect pass on his tape. 

The 3-0 lead stood until Anderson struck again in the third. He grabbed the puck at the top of the crease and pulled it to his backhand before roofing it to send at least one hat onto the ice in enemy territory. 

Daniel Klinecky got a late power-play goal to end Reid Cooper’s shutout bid. 

Johnson dished out two assists and Cooper made 34 saves in his league-leading eighth win of the season.

“There’s a lot to clean up for tomorrow,” Paulin said. “There are a lot of areas where we can be a lot better with our execution. At the end of the day, we got great and very timely goaltending, when we had some tough shifts or missed assignments, Cooper was there.”

Virostek made 28 stops in the loss.

The teams match up again on Saturday, November 22 at 7:30 P.M. The game will be streamed live on the PHP Network YouTube channel.