Game Recap

Ice Prowlers away versus the Athens Bobcats
@ Ohio University Bird Arena in Athens, Ohio
Friday, November 11th, 2005

PROWLERS COME FROM BEHIND AGAINST ATHENS

The Prowlers had a rough start to the season. They won the season opener 1-0 in the final second against the Olentangy Braves (10/30/2005). They dropped their first meeting with Hilliard 4-2 after being tied at one point 2-2 (11/05/2005). Then they turned the ship around against Westerville last weekend and fought back from a 4-1 defecit only to settle for a 5-5 tie (11/06/2005). Now was the biggest test of their season. They had to travel to Athens to face the GCHSCHL leaders, the undefeated Athens Bobcats, on their home ice.

Bird Arena has never really been friendly to the Prowlers over the years. Prior to the 2003-2004 season, the Prowlers had never won there. Last season, the Prowlers split their two games there with the Bobcats with one of only three loses for the team all season. This year, the Bobcats were on a roll to start the season 3-0 and were hosting the Prowlers in their GCHSCHL home opener, which translates to another tough game in Athens.

As usual, there was a great crowd out to support their Bobcats. The game looked to be under the Bobcats control early when their leading scorer, Brian Carlson, netted a power play goal just 2:47 into the contest with junior Austin Zurbriggen off or roughing. That would teach the Prowlers their lesson early, and that would be the only Athens power play of the night.

The Prowlers poured it on the Bobcats outshooting them 11-3 in the first period, but had nothing to show for it due to the outstanding goaltending of Athens' Alex Hubbard. The Bobcats added to their lead in the second period when Nick Gates took advantage of a Prowler defensive letdown and buried the puck behind junior Justin Lohrman to put the Bobcats ahead 2-0. That is where the score would remain after two periods of play.

The Prowlers came out for the third with a renewed energy and were able to convert junior alternate captain Brian Rossi's rush into a goal when freshman Brad Noskowiak burried the puck (assisted by Rossi) just one minute into the period. Now down by just a single goal, the Prowlers continue to pound at the Bobcats until finally scoring again when junior Nick Hess buried a rebound on the power play (assisted by senior alternate captain Taylor Walcutt) with just over three minutes left to play. Two minutes later, Walcutt scored a nice goal to give his team a 3-2 lead with just 1:03 remaining.

The Prowlers looked to be in controll, but knew that this was a solid Bobcats team and they wouldn't just give up in their own house. Athens pulled goaltender Hubbard for the extra attacker in the final minute, and then with 24 seconds left in the game, Mr. Bobcat, Brian Carlson netted his second goal of the contest from high traffic in front of the Prowler net to knot the score up at 3-3. It would remain that way as the final buzzer sounded, and as a result, the Bobcats remain unbeaten (3-0-1) to start the regular season. The Prowlers were happy to get a point out of Bird Arena after being down 2-0 to start the third, and can now look forward to facing the only team that they have lost to this season, the Hilliard/SW Wildcats on Sunday (11/13/2005) at 5:40 PM in a home game at the Chiller at Easton.