Game Recap

Ice Prowlers home versus the Hilliard/Southwest Wildcats
Blue Jackets Cup GCHSCHL Championship Tournament
@ the Dispatch Ice Haus
Friday, February 18th, 2006

PROWLERS SHUTOUT HILLIARD TO ADVANCE

The Prowlers took a tough 6-5 loss on Friday night (2/17/2006) to Westerville, and with that loss gave themselves a mountain to climb to get back to the Blue Jackets Cup Finals. Their route will now take them through the top five teams of the GCHSCHL, starting with the number four seed, the Hilliard/Southwest Wildcats.

The two teams split the season series 2-2, but had not seen each other since before the halfway point of the season. They had faced off three times in the league's first three weeks with the Wildcats handing the Prowlers their first loss of the season 4-2 (11/04/2005) before the Prowlers rattled off a pair of victories 6-3 (11/13/2005) and 5-0 (11/20/2005). The Wildcats eventually tied up the series with a 4-3 victory (12/09/2005) months ago on their way to being the surprise team of the league going from 4-17-3 a year ago to 13-7-4 this year. The Wildcats finished just one point behind the Prowlers in the regular season, but finished 4th in the standings after a head-to-head tie breaker loss to Westerville. The Wildcats lost their series opening game 4-2 to the 5th seed Olentangy Braves on Thursday and were off Friday evening. To keep their playoff hopes alive, both teams have the long task of winning every game through the rest of the tournament.

The Prowlers came out fired up and it showed. Junior Nick Hess started things off with a great back check in his own end which generated offense for the Prowlers. Freshman Adam McGrath was able to generate a goal (assisted by senior alternate captain Brian Rossi and Hess) to give the Prowlers an early lead just two minutes into the game. Junior goaltender Justin Lohrman proved his worth to his teammates after a shaky performance on Friday, stopping several key Wildcat opportunities throughout the first. Hess added to his team's lead with a goal of his own with 5:55 remaining in the stanza, converting a rebound off of senior alternate captain Taylor Walcutt's shot making the score 2-0 (assisted by Walcutt and McGrath).

In the second period, the Prowlers converted a pair of power play goals just 56 seconds apart as Hess scored his second of the game, again on a rebound from Walcutt at 3:57 (assists to Walcutt and junior Cody Berkebile), and sophomore Luke Wilkins scored off of a Berkebile rebound (assists to Berkebile and Rossi) to advance the score to 4-0 going into the second intermission.

The third period saw Hess complete his hat trick 1:33 into the period on a shot that chased goaltender Matt Bridger from the game. Ben Rohletter came in as relief and played solid, but was finally beaten by Berkebile with 5:20 remaining (assist to Wilkins) to make the final score 6-0. The Prowler defense was tenacious, allowing only one shot in the final period and just 11 in the game as Lohrman and his teammates earned their first shutout of the playoffs.

No rest for the weary though, which is the punishment of the loser's bracket. The Prowlers go right back to action at 6:00 PM at the Chiller North when they host the fifth seeded Olentangy Braves. The Braves advanced by beating the Newark Generals 5-4 in overtime this morning as well. The season series between the teams was won by the Prowlers 2-1-1 with the series tightly played. The Prowlers earned a 1-0 victory in the final second of the season opener (10/30/2005), then did not see the Braves until splitting a pair around the holiday break with Olentangy winning the first match 4-1 (12/18/2005) before the Prowlers rebounded for a 5-4 victory after the New Year (01/06/2006). The two teams skated to a 3-3 tie in their final meeting of the regular season (1/20/2006).