Game Recap

Ice Prowlers home versus the Westerville Warcats
@ the Dispatch Ice Haus
Sunday, January 29th, 2006

PROWLERS EVEN UP SERIES WITH WESTERVILLE

With the Prowlers 9-4 win over the Northeast Storm (1/27/2006) and Westerville's 8-4 loss to Olentangy on Friday, the Prowlers pulled within one point of the Warcats in the league standings. With Westerville holding a slight series lead after a 5-5 tie (11/06/2005) and a 2-1 Warcat win (11/18/2005) the Prowlers needed a win to not only pull the season series even, but also to leap frog the Warcats in the standings.

The two teams had not seen each other in over two months, but both knew that it would be a battle from the first drop of the puck. The teams had built up quite a rivalry over the league's eight seasons, culminating with a triple overtime thriller in the Blue Jackets Cup Finals a year ago. Last year the two were battling for first place in the league, now they are battling to keep in the top half of the seven team league. With just 13 points separating the top six spots, and 8 points separating 2nd through 6th, every game and every point is that much more important. This was an opportunity for the Prowlers to try and get ahead.

The scoring started just minutes into the game when the Prowlers found themselves on the game's first power play. Senior alternate captain Taylor Walcutt scored on a rebound (assisted by freshman Adam McGrath and junior Nick Hess) to beat Bill Sorokas with the game's first goal. The Warcats responded though with 2:46 remaining in the period when Eric Rohr beat junior Justin Lohrman to knot the score up at 1-1 after one.

The second period saw a flurry of power play goals by the Prowlers, who took advantage of the man advantage in this game going 4 for 9 with the extra attacker, while holding the Warcats to just one goal on 10 chances. Adam McGrath scored all three second period goals for the Prowlers, the first of which came just 2:15 into the period (assisted by junior Cody Berkebile and Hess). The next two were only 17 seconds apart. The first was with 2:15 remaining and the Prowlers on a 5-on-3 power play. McGrath was able to slip the puck under the arm of a sprawled out Sorokas on a rebound (assisted by Walcutt and Berkebile). For his third goal to complete the natural hat trick, he skated deep into the Warcats end and behind the net before firing the puck past Sorokas (assisted by senior alternate captain Jeff Laird) to make the score 4-1 and to give his team a commanding lead after two periods of play.

Just one minute into the third period, Walcutt scored his second of the game to give his team a four goal cushion at 5-1 (assisted by Hess). It was a steady stream of players in and out of the penalty box throughout the third, but the Prowlers continued to keep the Warcats off the board killing six consecutive Warcat power plays in the period before Jacob Lieberman beat Lohrman on a power play goal with 2:49 remaining.

The Prowlers marched on to a 5-2 victory and move past the Warcats in the GCHSCHL standings and into a tie with the Hilliard/Southwest Wildcats for second place in the league. They now go head to head with the league leading Athens Bobcats at 8:00 PM on Friday (2/03/2006) at the Chiller at Easton. That series is tied at 1-1-1 after a 3-3 tie (11/11/2005) and a 2-1 loss (12/02/2005) both at Athens before a 4-2 Prowler victory (1/08/2006) at home. The Prowlers round out their series with the Northeast Storm on Sunday (02/05/2006) at 6:00 PM at the Chiller at Easton. The Prowlers lead that series 3-0.