Game Recap

Ice Prowlers home versus the Northeast Storm
Blue Jackets Cup GCHSCHL Championship Tournament
@ the Chiller North
Thursday, February 16th, 2006

PROWLERS ADVANCE TO SECOND ROUND

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 with that, they drew the seventh seed Northeast Storm in their tournament opening game.

The Storm were 0-24 coming into the game, but were looking to play the role of spoiler in the tournament. Every year there is a major upset in the first round, and with the league as tight as it was this year, a Northeast win would be the only true surprise. The Prowlers could not afford to let that happen.

The team came out and scored two quick goals by junior Nick Hess and senior alternate captain Taylor Walcutt just five seconds apart in the first 48 seconds of the game to make sure that they didn't falter in this one (Hess assisted by Walcutt and freshman Adam McGrath and Walcutt assisted by McGrath). They went on to score six goals in the first period and chased the Storm goaltender Gareth Burghes from the net after the fourth just 4:45 into the game. (Goals by senior Nick Miller from sophomore Tommy Newhard and Hess, Hess from sophomore Austin Zurbriggen, Walcutt from Zurbriggen and sophomore Zach Wiard, and junior Cody Berkebile from Walcutt and Newhard)

The second period saw some life from the Storm as Mitch Derr beat junior goaltender Darren Coykendall, who started the second period in relief of junior Justin Lohrman, just over one minute into the period. Coykendall recovered though and was perfect through the second while his team scored three more goals in the final five minutes of the period. (Walcutt from Hess and Newhard, and two from sophomore Luke Wilkins both from McGrath).

The third period saw an early goal from Miller (assisted by Newhard and Zurbriggen), his second of the game, but then no scoring until the final minutes. The Storm rattled off two more goals from Derr at 1:37 and with thirteen seconds remaining before sophomore Taylor Markell rounded out the scoring for the Prowlers with three seconds remaining (assisted by juniors Geoff Killian and Max Matsanoff).

With the win, the Prowlers advance to the second round and a meeting with the 2005 defending Cup Champion Westerville Warcats at 9:00 PM on Friday (2/17/2006) at the Chiller North. The Warcats, the tournament's third seed, advanced by defeating the number six seed Newark Generals 3-2 in overtime in their tournament opening game. The season series was 2-1-1 in the Warcats favor, but the Prowlers come in looking for revenge after losing two of three to the Warcats in last year's tournament.