Prowlers Swat Rumble Bees But Get Knocked Out By Enforcers In Three-Game Weekend
By: Jeremy Skiba
In a three-game weekend, the Port Huron Prowlers managed to win two games against the Battle Creek Rumble Bees but fell short to the Elmira Enforcers. Here’s how it all went down.
In the first period of Friday night’s matchup, Larri Vartianen started the scoring when he found the back of the net with a slap shot that sailed past the glove of Morgan Hudson. Stavros Soilis would even up the score after he would get around Vartianen in the offensive zone and slip the puck five-hole on Cory Simons.
With a tight pass from Mike Moroso, Dalton Jay would give the Prowlers a 2-1 lead after he wristed a shot that would beat Joel Eisenhower. The puck would sail over the shoulder then bank off the cross bar into the net. Matt Graham would then tally minutes later firing home a pass from Dalton Young who drew Eisenhower out of the net. Graham would shoot into an empty net for the third Prowlers' goal of the game.
Moroso would open the scoring in the third period with his seventh goal of the season. Meanwhile, Soilis would deflect a pass past Simons for his second of the game with 6:44 remaining. But Johnathan Juliano would the add dagger when he deflected a shot off the skate of Vinnie Susi. The puck would slide between Eisenhower's pads to cement the game at 5-2.
On Saturday night just 38 seconds into the game, Dalton Young got the scoring started when he blasted a shot off the post and past Joel Eisenhower. Nathan Pelligra would then even up the game at one when he would deflect a pass-through Blake Scott's five hole. Mike Moroso would answer back and put the Prowlers up 2-1 on the power play with around three minutes remaining in the period.
After missing Friday night’s game, Bobby Sokol would find the back of the net in the second period. Johnathan Juliano and Austin Fetterly would also tally in the period to put the Prowlers up 5-1.
Defense was nowhere to be found in the third when the teams would combine to score six additional goals. Fetterly and Juliano would each score twice for Port Huron. This would be Juliano’s first career hat-trick and Fetterly’s second hat-trick of the season and second of his career. Incidentally, both hat-tricks would come against the Rumble Bees. Ryan Alves would add a power play goal for Battle Creek and Stavros Soilis would score with 16 seconds left in the game. The final score would be 9-3 as the Prowlers would pick up six points in the Battle Creek sweep.
With the two losses, Battle Creek’s record stands at 1-35-0-1 and they sit last in the Western Division.
On Sunday, the Elmira Enforcers skated into town and managed to score first in a slow-paced game. From the point, Gino Mini would wrist a shot stick side on Cory Simons.
In the second period, the Prowlers and Enforcers would ramp up the offense. Dalton Jay and Bobby Sokol would find the back of the net for Port Huron and Ahmed Mahfouz, Hudson Michealis and Kyle Stevens would tally for Elmira giving the Enforcers a 4-2 lead heading into the second intermission.
Tyler Gjurich would score twice in the third period for Elmira and Johnathan Juliano would deflect a Bryan Parsons shot home but the Prowlers would fall 6-3.
After three-game weekend the Prowlers stand at 19-11-4-0 and second in the Western Division. Elmira jumps up to second in the Eastern Division with a record of 19-12-2-3.
Head Coach Joe Pace Shared his thoughts on the weekend.
“It was great to pick up six points but we wanted nine. In the first two games against Battle Creek, we played our game and it was a great set of team wins,” Pace said. “We were slow against Elmira and they converted on the few chances given to them. They were just always a step ahead.”
Next weekend the Prowlers host the Mentor Ice Breakers on Friday and Saturday. Friday’s game is at 7:30 PM and Saturday’s is at 6 PM. On Sunday, the Danville Dashers come to Port Huron for a matinee at 3 PM. All three games can be caught on EBW.TV.