Prowlers Record Third Shutout, Extend Win Streak to Seven
By Brady Beedon:
The Port Huron Prowlers shutout the Mentor Ice Breakers 2-0 Friday night, en route to their seventh straight victory.
Joe Pace opened the scoring at the 15:31 mark of the first period, hitting a knuckle puck over the shoulder of Mentor goaltender Austyn Roudebush.
The only other goal would come when Dave Nippard turned and fired a shot from the boards, and Matt Graham tipped the puck off the post and to the back of the net.
For his efforts, Chris Paulin recorded his second shutout of the season, and the team’s third.
“I thought the boys battled hard,” said Paulin “Obviously, it’s a tough place to play, they were blocking shots, battling in front, clearing rebounds. It wasn’t a perfect game but we gutted it out.”
The Prowlers killed off five different penalties throughout the night.
Alex Strack stepped up for Dalton Young, who didn’t play with flu like symptoms.
“It’s been feeling good,” said Strack. “We had to do the same thing in Danville, it just comes down to doing your job.”
Strack also expressed that it takes more than just one phase of the game to produce a shutout.
“Really [a shutout] is an all team effort,” said Strack. “We had a couple really good plays, a few really good back checks by our forwards, so you can’t just chalk it up to great goaltending and great defense.”
Things got chippy in the final minutes, when Mentor’s Mark Essery swung his stick at Austin Fetterly’s head, resulting in a five-minute major and a game misconduct.
“When you are the best team in the league, people are going to try to suck you into things,” said Pace. “We have to be team tough and stick together as a group, and obviously tomorrow we have to keep our heads up.”
The Prowlers will rematch the Ice Breakers Saturday in Mentor. Puck drops at 6:30