Prowlers Hold Off Scarecrows, Extend Second-Place Lead

The Port Huron Prowlers took firm control of second place in the Empire Division with a 3-2 win over the Topeka Scarecrows at Landon Arena on February 20. Port Huron now sits four points ahead of Topeka for second place meaning it stays in that spot no matter what happens in the series finale on Saturday.

The Prowlers got on the board first late in the opening period. Alex Johnson walked in from the blue line and sniped a power-play goal over Sammy Bernard’s glove.

The Scarecrows pushed back in the second, peppering Reid Cooper with 20 shots, and they got one through. Cameron Clark got behind the Port Huron defense and ripped home a shot to tie the score heading into the third.

“Execution was not great [in the second period],” said Prowlers associate head coach Chris Paulin. “We talked in the locker room about changing something, I thought some of the looks when we were trying to break out were off. We addressed that and it helped us get into the offensive zone, you saw what we did in the offensive zone. They had a really hard time adjusting and we exploited it in the third period.”

Early in the final frame, cycling in the offensive zone led to Vinny Dekumbis finding Bobby Price with a back-door pass to restore the Prowlers lead. Later, Matt Graham tipped home a Reggie Millette shot to make it 3-1 with Port Huron’s second power play marker of the night.

Connor Lind pulled Topeka within one, but his team couldn’t tie it with a power play in the final minutes.

“I think we learned a little bit from our last game against Binghamton,” Cooper said. “Bobby came up with some huge blocks, we got some huge faceoff wins and we just beared down. We competed hard and it paid off for us.”

Arttu Heikkila dished out two assists for the second-straight night as eight Prowlers found the scoresheet. Cooper made 42 saves in his 27th win with Port Huron, second in franchise history.

Lind added an assist to his goal while Bernard stopped 21 shots.

The three-in-three wraps up on February 21 at 8:05 P.M. est. The game will be available live on the PHP Network YouTube channel.

“I call [tomorrow] the biggest win of the season,” Paulin declared.