Game Recap

Ice Prowlers home versus the Hilliard/Southwest Wildcats
@ The Chiller at Easton
Sunday, November 20th, 2005

PROWLERS SHUTOUT WILDCATS TAKE LEAD IN SEASON SERIES 2-1

After a tough 2-1 loss against Westerville on Friday (11/18/2005), the Prowlers were right back at it Sunday night with a chance to gain some ground on the Hilliard/Southwest Wildcats. The Wildcats were sitting two points above them and in sole possession of 3rd place in the GCHSCHL. The two teams had split their first two matches of the season, with the Wildcats winning 4-2 in the first meeting (11/05/2005) and the Prowlers dominating in a 6-3 victory last Sunday (11/13/2005). A Prowler win would put the two teams tied for 3rd place with the Prowlers still having a game in hand on the Wildcats.

The Prowler offense had a lot more jump in this contest than against Westerville. The team threw 9 shots at the Wildcat goaltender Matt Bridger in the first, finally connecting with 4:06 remaining in the period, when senior alternate captain Taylor Walcutt roofed the puck on Bridger to get the Prowlers on the board first 1-0. That would be all that the Prowlers would need this night as their goaltender, junior Justin Lohrman played his most steady game of the season, turning aside all 21 Wildcat shots in the game to earn his second shutout of the season.

The Prowlers got three nice goals in the second period to add cushion to the win. Freshman Adam McGrath setup the first of them sending a perfect pass to junior Nick Hess cutting it to the net, who then buried the puck past Bridger for the goal (assisted by McGrath and junior Cody Berkebile). Sophomore Taylor Markell followed that up scoring from along the goal line when he battled for the puck in the corner, then stepped out with the puck sniping it between the goaltender and the post for his first goal of the season (unassisted). Berkebile then forced a turnover in the neutral zone and got the puck to Walcutt, who buried it to put the Prowlers up 4-0 to end the second period (assisted by Berkebile). Lohrman kept the Wildcats off of the scoreboard as well, stopping 13 shots in the period, including a Hilliard breakaway nine minutes into the period with the score at 3-0.

The Prowlers capped off the scoring when Berkebile put a laser past Bridger from the circle to give the Prowlers a 5-0 shutout win and a tie with the Wildcats for 3rd place in the GCHSCHL.

The Prowlers now take their show outside of the league for the 2005 Midwest Thanksgiving High School Hockey Classic hosted by St. Charles Preparatory School. They will face Strongsville at 5:30PM on Friday (11/25/2005), then have Archbishop Moeller at 11:15 AM on Sunday (11/26/2005) and a rematch from last season's tournament with Marian (Mishawaka) at 9:30 PM. All of the Thanksgiving games will be held at the Chiller North. They then get back into their GCHSCHL league schedule on Friday (12/02/2005) when they travel back to Athens, Ohio to face the league leading Athens Bobcats. The Bobcats are undefeated at 6-0-1 with the only blemish on their record being a 3-3 tie in the Prowlers first visit to Athens this season (11/11/2005). The Prowlers will look to give the Bobcats their first loss of the season when they visit Athens at 8:00 PM on Friday (12/02/2005) at Ohio University Bird Arena.