Prowlers Exterminate Rumble Bees In Home-And-Home Series

By: Jeremy Skiba

In a home-and-home series with the Battle Creek Rumble Bees, the Port Huron Prowlers would win both games this weekend. On Friday, the Prowlers defeated the Rumble Bees 7-2 in Battle Creek then at McMorran Arena on Saturday, Port Huron defeated Battle Creek 10-3. Here’s how it all went down.

On Friday night, the Prowlers got the scoring started early when Dalton Jay raced into the offensive zone and wristed a shot past Morgan Hudson just a minute and seven seconds into the game. Dave Nippard would tally in the dying minutes of the period. When Austin Fetterly poke-checked the puck loose in the Rumble Bee's defensive zone, Nippard would skate in, pick up the puck and slip it through Hudson's five-hole to put Port Huron up 2-0.

The Prowlers opened up the second period with three straight goals from Justin Portillo, Dalton Jay and Matt Graham. After Dalton Jay's second goal, Michal Marcinek would replace Morgan Hudson in net for Battle Creek. Shortly thereafter, Tyler Becker would serve a two-minute bench minor for too many men on the ice. On the power play, Ethan Busch-Anderson would get the Rumble Bees on the board with a shot from the point. But Portillo would tally once more and Jay would complete his hat-trick before the period ended.

Jason Stone would have the lone tally for Battle Creek in the third period as the Prowlers would go on to win 7-2. Blake Scott would make 48 saves in his debut for the Prowlers.

On Saturday night, the Rumble Bees started strong, jumping out to a 2-0 lead with goals from Jakub Volf and Adam Howey, less than 10 minutes into the contest. But in the latter half of the period, Justin Portillo would find the back of the net on the power play when he tapped in a rebound off a Dalton Young blast from the point. Austin Fetterly would tie the game on the ensuing power play with 30 seconds remaining in the period.

The flood gates would open in the second period as the Prowlers would tally seven times. Dalton Jay and Matt Graham would each score twice in the period for Port Huron and Fetterly would collect his second goal of the game. Zach Zulkancyz would also find the back of the net and Kevin Porter would deflect a Joe Pace shot for his first career FPHL goal at the age of 44.

In the third period, the teams would trade goals for the night. First, Stavros Soilis would score for the Rumble Bees and then Austin Fetterly would post his third goal of the night, completing the hat-trick and cementing the 10-3 win.

Head Coach Joe Pace expected nothing less than to pick up six points this weekend.

“Facing a team down on their luck, we expected to have a great weekend. We always play teams hard and having a full roster helped us for sure,” Pace said. “We’ll have to get our heads back on the ice for our game against Danville and carrying the momentum over will be a big help for sure.”

After the weekend, the Prowlers remain in second in the Western Division with a record of 15-9-3-0. The Rumble Bees remain in last place with a record of 1-29-0-0.

The Prowlers will be back in action this Wednesday night as they welcome the Danville Dashers to town. Puck drop is set for 7:30 PM. All the action can be caught on EBW.TV.