Game Recap

Ice Prowlers away versus the Westerville Warcats
@ the CoreComm Ice Haus
Sunday, December 12th, 2004

Prowlers lose 2nd of 3 to Westerville

The season series was tied at one game a piece in the season series between the Prowlers and Warcats. Westerville had won the first match 4-2 back on 11/07/2004, while the Prowlers claimed the 4-3 victory in the heated matchup just one week ago (12/03/2004). With Westerville coming off of a 2-2 tie with Hilliard on Friday, the Prowlers knew that Westerville would be hungry, and head coach Marty Laroche hoped that the Prowlers tough schedule with games at Newark (12/09/2004) and at Athens (12/11/2004) did not effect his players in this game.

Sophomore Jesse Betts was back in the Prowlers net for this match coming off a win against Westerville the previous week and against Athens just the night before. Morgan Rogers was tending goal for the Warcats. Westerville came out of the gates flying, scoring four unanswered goals in the first period, including two shorthanded, to take a quick 4-0 lead in the game.

The second period saw more of an attack from the Prowlers, but Rogers held his ground for the Warcats until at 6:54 of the period when junior Taylor Walcutt tipped in a shot from the point by freshman Zach Wiard (assisted by Wiard and senior alternate captain Anthony Kantor) to get his team on the board. Westerville responded just 41 seconds later when Sean Hundley beat Betts to push the Warcats cushion back to 4 goals, but the Prowlers kept plugging away at the Westerville goal until senior defenseman Matt Schuh was able to score from the point on the power play with just 43 seconds remaining in the period (assisted by Kantor).

Eight seconds later, junior Ben French took advantage of a misplayed puck by the Westerville goaltender Rodgers to bring the Prowlers within 2 goals going into the third period, but it would not be enough on this night as the Warcats rattled off three unanswered goals in the third period to go on to an 8-3 victory and take the series lead 2-1 and reclaim 1st place in the league.

The Prowlers will pick things up and look forward at another busy weekend with a stacked three games in three nights. They start off the weekend at home (Chiller at Easton) on Friday (12/17/2004) at 8:00 PM versus the Newark Generals, then travel back down to Athens on Saturday (12/18/2004) for a rematch with the Bobcats at 6:30 PM at the Ohio University Bird Arena (Athens). Then on Sunday (12/19/2004), it is their second match of the season with the Hilliard/Southwest Panthers at 6:00 PM at the Chiller North.