Game Recaps 11/21/24

PORT HURON PROWLERS at BATON ROUGE ZYDECO


Zydeco Win, Overtake First Place


by Andy Poetzinger


Baton Rouge, LA - They don’t ask how, they ask how many. The Zydeco came from behind tonight to bring home a 3-2 victory.


It wasn’t the prettiest of games for the Zydeco. It was a very slow first period that saw them fall being 2-0 eleven minutes into the game. They had a tough time generating any speed through the neutral zone and played a lot of chip and chase hockey. Which is not their bag. 


The second period opened up a bit more as the Zydeco got more quality scoring chances and finally cashed in on the powerplay thanks to Brodie Thornton. His shot from the top of the zone found its way through a maze of bodies, and net front presence from Kevin Szabad screened the goaltender to get the Zydeco on the board. 


It was all Zydeco in the third period. They received another powerplay thanks to Narek Aleksanyan keeping a cool head. He took an extra punch, and the Zydeco went to the man advantage. Brodie Thornton with a heads up play, faked a shot and put a pass right on the tape of Kevin Szabad who redirected the puck between the legs of Nousiainen to tie the game at two.


At the 6:30 mark, the Zydeco took the lead on a play where Matthew Gordon tossed the puck towards the net and Tyler Larwod was able to get a tiny piece of the puck and changed the trajectory enough to fool Nousiainen.


The Prowlers made a push in the final minutes, but couldn’t find a way to beat Colgan a 3rd time. Colgan earned his 6th win of the season, and the Zydeco take over first place in the Continental Division from the idle Athens Rock Lobsters.


The next game for the Zydeco will be tomorrow night as they finish this two-game series against the Port Huron Prowlers. Catch us on YouTube and WBRZ for that contest. Puck drop is at 7:05, and pre-game show starts at 6:40.


Prowlers Blow Lead in Baton Rouge


by Will Wiegelman


Baton Rouge, LA - The Port Huron Prowlers blew a two-goal lead and fell to the Baton Rouge Zydeco 3-2 on November 21 in the FPHL’s only game of the night. It was the first time in franchise history Port Huron lost at the Raising Cane’s River Center.


“I think we shot ourselves in the foot,” said Prowlers assistant coach Alex Johnson. “We got too cute. I think sometimes when you get out to an early lead against a team like that, guys start to think it’s ‘point night’ and we can never think that. We have to keep our foot on the gas and play the way we play.”


The Prowlers took an early lead when, off an offensive zone faceoff, Gavin Fleck spun and backhanded home his first in the FPHL. Later in the period, his line struck again as Tucker Scantlebury danced around a Zydeco defender and beat Breandan Colgan from below the faceoff circle.


Baton Rouge chipped away starting on the power play in the second period. Brodie Thornton fired a shot through traffic to cut the Port Huron lead in half. Then 1:21 into the third, Thornton sent another power-play shot to the net that was tipped home by Kevin Szabad to tie the score.


“[Their power play was] running four high which has given us problems all year,” Johnson said. “We have a way to combat that and we’ll come back tomorrow.”


Later in the frame, the Zydeco got a rush and Matthew Gordon’s shot was deflected by Tyler Larwood and it fooled Valtteri Nousiainen. That turned out to be the game winner and Larwood was named the game’s first star.


Scantlebury added an assist to his goal and was the third star while Nousiainen took the loss with 26 saves.


A goal and an assist were good enough to get Thornton second-star honors while Colgan made 27 stops in the win.


The teams match back up on Friday, Nov. 22 at 8:05 P.M. eastern. That game will be streamed live on the PHP Network.