GAME RECAPS 3/17/23

BINGHAMTON BLACK BEARS at ELMIRA MAMMOTH


Elmira Surges Late, Falls 6-2 to Binghamton


by Jacob Johnson

Elmira, NY - The Mammoth came back home after a weekend split with the Port Huron Prowlers to take on the Binghamton Black Bears. The Black Bears would end their long 2-week road trip with a victory over Elmira, 6-2.

It took a while for both teams to get going but with less than 5 minutes left in the first, Ricards Jelenskis took a holding penalty and was sent off to the box. Don Olivieri took advantage and potted the first goal of the game with the assist from Gavin Yates to make it 1-0 Black Bears. 

2 minutes later Justin Schmit sent a puck out of play and was sent to the sin bin. The Black Bears would prosper again on the power play. Kyle Powell sent a shot from the point that Austin Thompson deflected past Thomas Proudlock to make it 2-0 Binghamton. That is how the first period would end.

Less than 3 minutes into the 2nd period, the Black Bears found another power play opportunity and this time it was Cameron Yarwood with a bomb that found its way past Proudlock, Olivieri and Jestin Somero each received an assist.

Later on in the 2nd Jestin Somero was able to tee up a one timer that found its way to the back of the net for his first career goal. Assisting was Yarwood and Yates and the Black Bears would lead 4-0. 

The Mammoth parade to the box would continue as they end period 2 in the box, the Black Bears would start on the powerplay for the final frame of the contest.

The Black Bears would not capitalize on that power play, but they would tack onto their lead. Gavin Yates put away a rebound in the paint to make it 5-0. Yarwood and Lewis each earned an assist.

With less than 8 minutes left in the game the Mammoth would end the shutout of Talor Joseph. Jim Jensen was able to net his first career Mammoth goal with the assists from Stavros Soilis and Tate Leeson.

5 minutes later Luke Richards continued his goal streak, the Mammoth finally struck for gold on the powerplay to tighten things up 5-2. 

Binghamton would close the door with an empty netter from Gavin Yates to make the final score 6-2 Black Bears.

These two teams will go back at it again tomorrow night at the Visions Veterans Memorial Arena in Binghamton as the Black Bears ended their two-game skid tonight with a 6-2 victory.

The Herd will return home next Friday and Saturday against the Carolina Thunderbirds, tickets are still available at FirstArena.Net as well as the Box Office at First Arena.



DELAWARE THUNDER at PORT HURON PROWLERS 


PROWLERS HANG EIGHT ON THUNDER


by Will Wiegelman

Port Huron, MI - The Port Huron Prowlers’ offense overran the Delaware Thunder in an 8-1 victory on March 17. The eight goals are the most Port Huron has scored at McMorran Place this season.

Jakub Volf got the scoring started for Delaware 2:21 into the contest but that was all the momentum his team could muster.

Offensive zone pressure led to Matt Stoia tying the game at one eight and a half minutes in. That score held until there was under two minutes to play when Evan Foley pushed the puck to the middle of the ice and Alex Johnson fired it past Spencer Kozlowski to give the Prowlers a 2-1 lead.

Just over five minutes into the second period, Tory McLean found his way to the middle of the ice and scored his first goal as a Prowler. 

Joe Deveny added to the lead later in the frame, extending his goal streak to four games. 32 seconds later, Dalton Jay took back the team lead in goals with his 29th of the year.

Jay made it 6-1 in the final minute of the second and hit 30 goals for the sixth season in his career. He was named the game’s first star.

Matt Graham chopped home a rebound in the third and Deveny rounded out the scoring with his second of the night. 

Jay and Deveny each had two goals and an assist to lead the way. Johnson, Graham and Stoia all added an assist to their goals. Foley, Sam Marit and Dan Chartrand picked up two assists apiece. Wyatt Hoflin made 30 saves in the win.

Spencer Kozlowski made 37 saves in two periods of work while Jacob Gnidziejko stopped 10 of 12 Prowlers shots in relief.

The Prowlers and Thunder battle again on Saturday, March 18 at 6:05 P.M. at McMorran Place. Tickets are available at phprowlers.com/tickets.


MISSISSIPPI SEA WOLVES at COLUMBUS RIVER DRAGONS 


 RIVER DRAGONS TAKE OPENING GAME OF WEEKEND SERIES FROM SEA WOLVES

Croop Nets 200th Pro Point In Win, Kelly Scores Twice and Adds Assist


by Tom Callahan



Columbus, GA - The Columbus River Dragons defeated the Mississippi Sea Wolves 5-3 on a pair of goals by Jacob Kelly and Jay Croop’s 200th pro point.

With the game tied at one after one period of play, Adam Vannelli put the River Dragons (34-8-4) ahead just 1:10 into the second period, following his own rebound for a goal from the slot. After Mississippi responded to tie the game back up at two, Kelly scored his second of the game on a beautiful effort, cutting in from the left wing with a toe drag around the defenseman before tucking a backhander home through the legs of Sea Wolves (14-27-4) goaltender Anthony D’Aluisio. The goal marks Kelly’s team-leading 36th of the season and moves him back into third place in the FPHL goal scoring race.

In the third period, Jay Croop scored a power play goal for his 200th pro and FPHL point, the eventual game winner. Cody Wickline wrapped the scoring with a power play goal of his own at 14:16 of the third period.

Breandan Colgan recorded his 18th win of the season with 26 saves on the night.

The same two teams are back in action tomorrow night at 7:30 pm, with the Legends of Columbus Hockey alumni game facing off at 5:30 pm. Then they wrap up the season series on Sunday at 4:30 pm. Tickets for all remaining River Dragons home games are on sale through the Columbus Civic Center Box Office and online at TicketMaster.com.


Sea Wolves Win Streak Ends at Five


by Nick Roesch

Columbus, GA - The Mississippi Sea Wolves fell short in their first road game since January 28 on Friday night, dropping a 5-3 result to the Columbus River Dragons at the Columbus Civic Center.

Lucas Helland led the Sea Wolves to a 1-0 start with a goal at 5:40 of the first period, but Jacob Kelly squeaked a puck past Mississippi goaltender Anthony D’Aloisio to tie the score at the 10:02 mark. 

The River Dragons outscored the Sea Wolves 2-1 in the second period with strikes from Kirk Underwood and Jacob Kelly. Mississippi’s only goal in the middle twenty came off the stick of Jeff Eppright, who was fed a pass on the odd-man rush from Philip Wong. 

Columbus grew their lead to 5-2 with Jay Croop and Cody Wickline both capitalizing on power plays. Jake Raleigh tallied his fifth shorthanded goal of the season with 3:50 to spare in regulation, but it wasn’t enough to spark a Sea Wolves comeback as the night ended with a 5-3 final score. 

D’Aloisio had another high-intensity appearance in net, blocking 40 shots in his first regulation loss with the Sea Wolves in seven games. The final shots on goal count went to the River Dragons at 45-29. 

The Sea Wolves and River Dragons will meet for the second matchup of the three game series tomorrow, March 18. Puck drop is set for 6:30pm Central Time and the action will be available for viewing on the Mississippi Sea Wolves YouTube channel.


MOTOR CITY ROCKERS at CAROLINA THUNDERBIRDS


THUNDERBIRDS HANG ON, DEFEAT ROCKERS 2-1


by Brett Wiseman



Winston-Salem, NC - In a true tight-checking affair, Mario Cavaliere stood tall in net and Dawson Baker put home a pair of goals to help the Carolina Thunderbirds outlast the Motor City Rockers 2-1.

In front of a crowd of over 2,800 fans on St. Patrick's Day, the Thunderbirds utilized strong goaltending and solid defense while peppering the Rockers' net with shots. Motor City's Trevor Babin did all he could, stopping 40 Thunderbirds shots. It was the two that got past him from Baker that made the difference.

Both teams felt each other out over the first half of the first period. Just past the halfway point of the opening frame, Joe Kennedy intercepted the puck in the neutral zone, fed ahead to Gus Ford, who dropped it back to a wide open Baker. Baker launched a wrist shot from the high slot past the glove of Babin to give the Thunderbirds a 1-0 lead.

Both teams battled through the rest of the first and the initial half of the second before the scoring opened up on both sides. 

A host of Thunderbirds created traffic in front of Babin's crease, completely blocking his view of the puck. Baker sent a wrist shot through the maze of bodies and it found the back of the net for his second of the night and seventeenth of the season.

Motor City added a power play goal a minute later, but that's all the Rockers would get against a stalwart Cavaliere.

The Thunderbirds played solid defense down the stretch and Cavaliere stood tall to help Carolina hold on for their fourth straight victory.

Baker's pair of goals earned him first star. Ford assisted on both, netting him second star honors, and Cavaliere earned third star for yet another strong performance between the pipes.

The two teams meet for the middle of the three game weekend series tomorrow night at 6:05




DANBURY HAT TRICKS at WATERTOWN WOLVES


Wolves Fall to Hat Tricks, 5-3


by Jeff Barrett



Watertown, NY -  The ninth meeting of the season between the two squads took place on Friday evening. This would be Danbury's last trip to Watertown in the regular season.

The two starting goalkeepers would turn out to be the story of the first twenty minutes as Danbury's Brian Wilson and Watertown's Owen Liskiewicz kept the game scoreless through the first frame. Danbury outshot Watertown 17 to 12 in the period.

Period number two found tempers getting heated with several small scrums that didn't amount to much more than some pushing and shoving, until the 3:10 mark when the Hat Tricks Daniel Amesbury and the Wolves Tim Payne decided to drop the gloves and have a go. Both would get 5 minute majors.

From that point, the anger would only grow from there. At the 14:55 point, Danbury's Tobias Odjick would go after Kolt Maguire, resulting in Odjick getting 2 minutes for instigating, 5 for fighting, and a 10 minute game misconduct and ejection.

The Wolves would take full advantage of the 5 minute power play, first at 18:09 when Sam Hrabcak knocked home a rebound giving Watertown a 1-0 lead, assisted by Larry Yellowknee and Parker Moskal.

Just :53 second later, Larry Yellowknee would also take advantage of a big rebound off of Wilson, and potted one to the top left corner extending Watertown's lead to 2-0. Assists on the goal belonged to Parker Moskal and Elijah Wilson. The period ended with that score with Watertown also outshooting Danbury 14 to 11 for the second period.

Period number 3 would turn out to be a completely different game as Danbury would strike 5 times in the last 20 minutes. First, at just :31 seconds in, Daniel McKitrick put the Hat Tricks on the board on a one timer off a Johnny Ruiz pass. Also getting an assist was Michael Marcheson.

McKitrick added his second goal at 8:37, assisted by Ruiz and John MacDonald knotting the game at 2. Just under 2 minutes later Egor Borshchev gave the Hat Tricks their first lead of the night, at the 10:19 as he was able to slide one through the 5 hole on Liskiewicz assisted by Dmitry Kuznetsov and John MacDonald, making the score 3-2.

Borshchev would add his second goal of the night with an empty netter at the 18:16 mark, with the helpers going to Lucus DeBenedet and Xavier Abdella, extending the lead to 4-2.

Watertown again tightened up the score at 4-3 when Samuel Hrabcak sniped one over the shoulder of Wilson, assisted by Zach Horn and Kolton Maguire at 19:33, but just 13 seconds later, McKitrick scored the second empty net goal of the period giving him a hat trick for the evening. The lone assist on the goal would go to Johnny Ruiz.
Danbury outshot Watertown 19 to 9 in the third for a total of 47 to 35 for the game. Watertown was 2 for 5 on power play chances while Danbury went 0 for 4.

Danbury scores the 5-3 win in their final trip to Watertown this season. The two teams will meet on Saturday evening, this time in Danbury.