Game Recap

Ice Prowlers away versus the Westerville Warcats
@ the Chiller at Easton
Sunday, February 12th, 2006

PROWLERS DROP SEASON FINALLY TO WARCATS

After rattling off 5 straight wins and going 5-1-1 in the new year, the Prowlers had one last contest to round out their 2005-2006 regular season. The team was 11-3-1 in their last 15 coming into this one, and had all but clinched second place in the GCHSCHL with their come from behind 5-2 win (2/10/2006) just two nights earlier. This game would be a primer for the 2006 Blue Jackets Cup GCHSCHL Championship Tournament for them, but meant a difference between 3rd and 4th place for their opponent, the Westerville Warcats.

The season series was tied at 1-1-1 after a 5-5 tie (11/06/2005) to start the series, then a 2-1 Warcat win (11/18/2005) before the Prowlers evened up the series with a 5-2 win just two weekends ago (1/29/2006). This game would have the typical feel of a Prowler/Warcat contest in a series that leaned slightly in the Prowlers favor at 9-8-2 dating back to 2002.

The first period started out with the teams trading goals in the first five minutes. The Warcats opened the scoring when Jacob Lieberman beat junior goaltender Justin Lohrman through a screen just 3:21 into the contest. Junior Nick Hess countered for the Prowlers just 1:50 later converting a pass from senior alternate captain Jeff Laird to tie the score at one all. The Warcats then scored the only special teams goal in this contest, but it came with the Prowlers on the power play. Justin Wendel scored the short handed goal just seconds after Lohrman had made a great stick side save to keep his team even in the contents.

The Prowlers got right back on the board and evened the game up in the early minutes of the second period. Junior Cody Berkebile scored to get his team back into the game (assisted by sophomore Zach Wiard and Junior Nick Hess). Freshman Brad Noskowiak then fired a wrist shot past goaltender Billy Sorokas (assisted by sophomores Luke Wilkins and Ryan Straker) to give the Prowlers their first lead of the game with 6:18 remaining in the second period, but that would be the final lead for the Prowlers as the Warcats rallied back to tie the score 3-3 just minutes later when Justin Sachs tapped in a pass on the back door to beat Lohrman and round out the period scoring with the game knotted up at 3-3.

The third period saw the Prowlers pick up their shots on goal, but Sorokas was perfect turning aside ten shots in the final fifteen minutes. Brandon Grim scored 2:14 into the period to give the Warcats a 4-3 lead, and it would stay that way until the last minutes of the game. the Prowlers pulled Lohrman for the extra attacker with time ticking down, but it was Aaron Archibald who put the icing on the cake for the Warcats with an empty net goal, winning the game 5-3, the season series 2-1-1 and clinching 3rd place in the GCHSCHL for the Warcats.

The Prowlers finished the regular season in second place in the GCHSCHL giving them their fourth straight season with a second place finish or better. They end up with a 14-7-3 record for 31 points in the GCHSCHL (14-11-3 overall) and will advance to the Blue Jackets Cup next weekend where they will open on Thursday (2/16/2006) at 7:30 PM against the 7th place Northeast Storm at the Chiller North. They also will represent the GCHSCHL in the second annual Buckeye Cup (HS Club Hockey) State Championship March 10th-12th.