River Sharks Bite Shorthanded Prowlers

The Port Huron Prowlers fell 5-1 to the Elmira River Sharks to open up a five-game home stand on Feb. 2. Elmira scored five unanswered including the empty netter.

“I didn’t see the same hunger this week in practice [as the past few weeks],” said Prowlers assistant coach Chris Paulin. “We had some guys sick, some guys hurt, we have a lot of excuses to make but the reality is, we didn’t show up with that same urgency and hunger. We said in the locker room we need to be a team full of dogs and dogs are never full, they’re always hungry. You win a few games and then you get a lesson in humility and that’s what we got served.”

Austin Fetterly got the scoring started with a one-timer near the bottom of the faceoff circle off a pass from Matt Graham. 56 seconds later, Larri Vartiainen turned a shot on net from the half wall that beat Tucker Tynan to tie the game.

Marquis Grant-Mentis untied the score a minute later in his River Sharks debut and Bret Parker rounded out the first-period scoring when the puck popped out to him in the slot.

Darius Davidson made it 4-1 midway through the second period and Kyle Powell hit the empty net from below his own goal line in the final minutes of the third to seal the deal.

Tynan finished with 27 saves while his team had 47 shots, their most in a loss this season.

“[We need] a lot of self evaluation, for all of us,” Paulin said. “Staff, players, everyone needs to self evaluate what’s important and what kind of team we are. We were never a team built to show up to the rink and score a few goals when you need it and win a game. Whether we’re playing a first place team or last place team, we come here hungry and playing for each other.”

Sammy Bernard was the first star of the game with 46 saves. Davide Gaeta and Rasmus Asp contributed a pair of assists apiece.

The teams battle again in Port Huron on Feb. 3 at 7:05 P.M. Tickets are available at phprowlers.com/tickets or at the door.

Photo courtesy of Delta Imaging