GAME RECAPS 3/25/23

BINGHAMTON BLACK BEARS at MOTOR CITY ROCKERS 

 Rockers Special Teams Defeat Black Bears 8-4 on Saturday night

by Ben Szilagy

Fraser, MI -  Motor City continues to play its best hockey as the season rapidly comes to a close, as the Rockers doubled up Binghamton 8-4 on Saturday night.

Just like Saturday night, the Rockers took an early lead. 

4:36 into the first period, Mike Winn carried the puck deep into the offensive zone and wrapped the puck around the net in front of Cade Lambdin who put away his seventh of the season for a 1-0 lead. Cam Yarwood evened the score, 1-1, on the powerplay for the second time this weekend with 4:56 to play in the period. 

The Rockers (28-16-6) retook the lead, 2-1, on a quick wrister from Declan Conway for his 21st of the season from the far side circle. 

Special teams dominated the scoresheet in the second period as the Black Bears evened the score again, 2-2, 1:30 into the middle frame off the stick of Tyson Kirkby. 

The Rockers regained the lead with the main advantage when Scott Coash sniped the near side corner for his 7th power play goal of the season for a 3-2 lead. The lead expanded when Motor City had to kill a penalty and Derek Makimaa earned a rare short handed breakaway that he put away for his second short handed goal of the season for a 4-2 lead. 

Binghamton was able to get one back, however, when Tyler Gjurich beat Trevor Babin that pulled the Black Bears within one, 4-3, with 5:12 to play in the second period. 

While working hard on the PK, the Rockers earned another short-handed goal when Coash fired the puck on net during a 2-on-1 that was initially stopped. Lambdin put in the rebound for a 5-3 as the Rockers were killing the second half of a 5-on-3.

The third period belonged to Motor City where the Rockers had three more goals. 

Early in the final period, Connor Inger put in a rebound off a Coash shot for a 6-3 lead. 40-seconds later Makimaa earned another breakaway thanks to a nice break out pass by Babin that broke the water bottle as he went top shelf for a 7-3 lead. 

Jamie Milam earned his third goal of the weekend on a Rocker power play midway through the final period on a hard shot from the point for a 8-3 lead. Jake Schultz was able to cut back into the lead, 8-4, on a rebound shot from point blank range for his first of the weekend. 

The red hot Rockers will travel to Port Huron to start the final home-and-home of the I-94 Rivalry on Friday before hosting the Prowlers on Saturday, April 1st at Big Boy Arena.  



CAROLINA THUNDERBIRDS at ELMIRA MAMMOTH

Elmira Shocks Carolina Winning 5-3 

by Jacob Johnson

Elmira, NY - The Elmira Mammoth looked to rebound after a come from behind victory last night for the Carolina Thunderbirds after a 7-4 result here at First Arena last night. It was a very chippy game between the two teams, but Elmira would come out on the upper hand defeating the Thunderbirds by a final score of 5-3. 

The first period would pick up right where it left off last night with some scrappy play from both sides. Just before the halfway mark of the first Elmira Forward Luke Richards jammed home a rebound on Greggory Hussey to open the scoring. Tristan Mock and Josh Sanchez each earned the assist.

The next 10 minutes, each team would take some penalties, but every opportunity was killed off including a 4 on 3 at one point. The first period would end with the Mammoth holding a slim 1-0 lead over the Thunderbirds.

After the Mammoth took an early 2nd period timeout, they responded with a beautiful breakaway goal from Ricards Jelenskis. Dalton Anderson and Nick Gullo received the helpers. 

The Thunderbirds would finally break the shutout getting on the board with a goal from who else but Gus Ford, for Ford it's his 42nd of the season and inched the Thunderbirds closer. 

The 2nd period would end in favor of Elmira who held a 2-1 lead over Carolina with just 20 minutes left to play. 

The Thunderbirds would catch a lucky breakaway that sprung Gus Ford for his 2nd goal of the night to tie the hockey game up at 2.

The tie game would last about 10 minutes until Josh Sanchez found pay dirt for the 2nd straight night giving the Mammoth a 3-2 lead. 

4 minutes later Sanchez decided 1 wasn't enough so he buried his 2nd of the night to give Elmira a 4-2 lead with less than 4 minutes to play. 

The Thunderbirds were not done yet as they added the extra attacker and John Buttitta tipped in a long shot from the point past Proudlock to make it 4-3. 
The Mammoth would seal the deal with their 3rd empty netter of the season, this one off the stick of Nick Gullo who fired it from center ice into the empty twine to close the books on the night and give Elmira a 5-3 victory.

With the win the Mammoth have clinched the playoffs in their first year as a program and will be playing postseason hockey. 

The Mammoth will be on the road next Friday against the Binghamton Black Bears and back home on Saturday to take on the Danbury Hat Tricks. 



WATERTOWN WOLVES at PORT HURON PROWLERS 

PROWLERS BEAT WOLVES ON PUCKS AND PUPS NIGHT

by Will Wiegelman

Port Huron, MI - On Pucks and Pups night at McMorran Place, the Port Huron Prowlers defeated the Watertown Wolves 3-1 to earn a series split. The Prowlers move to 4-2-0 on their homestand.

Frank Schumacher snuck down to the middle of the ice and wired a one-timer past Owen Liskiewicz to give Port Huron a 1-0 lead 8:35 in.

That score held until the second period when the Prowlers struck again. On a delayed penalty, Dalton Jay skated into the offensive zone and fed Sam Gagnon who tipped it home to extend the lead to 2-0.

41 seconds later, Kolton Maguire sent a shot from the point through traffic that Wyatt Hoflin got a large chunk of, but not enough, and the lead was back to one.

Hoflin and the Port Huron defense locked things down the rest of the way and Schumacher chipped the puck around two Wolves before hitting the empty net in the final minute.

Schumacher finished with two goals and was the first star of the game while Jay earned second-star honors with two assists. Hoflin made 28 saves and was the game’s third star.

Liskiewicz finished with 37 saves in the loss for Watertown.

The Prowlers finish their seven-game homestand on Friday, March 31 against the Motor City Rockers. Tickets are available at phprowlers.com/tickets or by calling the McMorran Box Office at 810-985-6166.


MISSISSIPPI SEA WOLVES at DANBURY HAT TRICKS 

Hat Tricks Offensive Outburst Leads to Weekend Split

by Chris Lynch

Danbury, CT -  The Danbury Hat Tricks responded to a rare home loss on Friday night against the Mississippi Sea Wolves with a dominant 9-4 victory on Saturday night, the second highest offensive output of the season for the Hat Tricks. 

Tobias Odjick led the way with a two-goal and two-assist night for four points. Jonny Ruiz contributed another two goals and an assist to power the offensive push. 

Mississippi potted the first goal of the game on a power play only 4:06 into the game thanks to Yianni Liarakos. The Sea Wolves appeared to have the offensive control of the game before a stretch of two minutes and twenty seconds flipped the script completely. Gordy Bonnel opened the scoring to send the Danbury Arena into a frenzy. Ruiz, Odjick, and Marchesan followed before Yaroslav Yevdokimov answered for the Sea Wolves and Ruiz notched his second of the game to end the scoring at 5-2 ahead of the intermission. 

Danbury added three more goals in the second period behind the efforts of Zach Pamalayon, Odjick, and Jacob Ratcliffe. Brendan Sheehan ran the Hat Tricks scoring to nine with a third period power play goal while Lucas Hellend and Jake Raleigh notched two more Sea Wolf goals to end the night at 9-4 in Danbury’s favor. 

Brian Wilson recorded 46 saves and added two assists to the night’s scoring effort. All in all, 13 of the 18 players Danbury dressed scored a point in the effort. 

The Hat Tricks improve to 36-7-5, moving into a tie with the Columbus River Dragons for most points in the FPHL. 

Mississippi falls to 15-30-4. This was the first Hat Tricks win against the Sea Wolves in the brief existence of their franchise. 

Blake Weyrick started the game for the Sea Wolves, stopping 18 of 25 shots on net. Joseph Sheppard entered in relief and stopped 22 of 24 shots. 

Mississippi travels to play Carolina next weekend for a three game series in Winston-Salem. 

Danbury concludes their three-game weekend on Sunday afternoon against the Delaware Thunder. Puck drops at 3 PM at the Danbury Ice Arena. 


Sea Wolves Held to Weekend Split in Danbury

by Nick Roesch

Danbury, CT – The (15-30-4) Mississippi Sea Wolves’ search for a regular season sweep over the (37-7-5) Danbury Hat Tricks came to a halt on Saturday night with a 9-4 defeat at Danbury Arena. 

Yianni Liarakos opened the scoring for the Sea Wolves with his second goal of the weekend at 4:06 of the first period. The assistants on the play were Sam Turner and Philip Wong. 

With four minutes remaining in the opening stanza, things fell apart for Mississippi as the Hat Tricks scored four goals in a span of one minute and 20 seconds. Gordie Bonnell, Jonny Ruiz, Tobias Odjick and Michael Marchesan were the scorers in the impressive run. 

Yaroslav Yevdokimov scored for the second night in a row to cut the Sea Wolves’ deficit to 4-2, but Ruiz would hit the net again late in the period. The teams stood at a 5-2 Hat Tricks lead after just 20 minutes in the books. 

The first intermission did not slow down Danbury’s progress, as they came out and added three more goals to their total from Odjick, Zach Pamaylaon and Jacob Ratcliffe. The Sea Wolves were silenced in the second period and saw their deficit balloon to an 8-2 score.

Mississippi showed in the final period that they still had some fight in them with Lucas Helland and Jake Raleigh lighting the lamp. But any chance of a dramatic Sea Wolves comeback run was cut short with Brendan Sheehan’s top-shelf goal which closed the game at 9-4. 

Yianni Liarakos and Yaroslav Yevdokimov once again had matching performances with one goal and two assists apiece. Blake Weyrick started in net for the Sea Wolves before Joe Sheppard entered in relief 1:50 into the second period. 

Next weekend, the Sea Wolves have their third straight road series, this time heading to Winston-Salem, North Carolina to face the Carolina Thunderbirds. The three-game series opener is set for Friday, March 31 at 6:35pm Central Time. The action can be viewed all weekend long on the Mississippi Sea Wolves YouTube channel. 


COLUMBUS RIVER DRAGONS at DELAWARE THUNDER 

  Thunder Edge River Dragons to Split Weekend Series

by Delaware Thunder staff

Harrington, DE -  The Thunder knocked off the #1 team in the Continental Division, the Columbus River Dragons. In net for the Thunder, Spencer Kozlowski; for the River Dragons, Brendan Colgan. 

As the first period began the teams traded shots until a shorthanded goal by Houston Wilson opened up the scoring, answered shortly thereafter with a goal by Lane King. The score remained tied for the remainder of the first period. 

The second period saw 53 penalty minutes served, leading to a power play goal by Thunder’s TJ Delaney. An even strength goal by Denis Gafarov put the Thunder up 3-1 as the players left the ice after the second. 

The third period was marked by physicality as the raucous sold out crowd cheered on their Thunder. Two goals late in the game by Columbus, the first by Ozolinsh and the second a power play goal with Delaware down 2 men, by Jacob Kelly tied up the game at 3-3. A shorthanded goal by Wilson Houston put a final and definitive exclamation point on this Delaware Thunder win. Final score Delaware 4, Columbus 3.  


RIVER DRAGONS LOSE HEARTBREAKER TO THUNDER

by Tom Callahan

Harrington, DE - The Columbus River Dragons dropped a heartbreaker to the Delaware Thunder on Saturday night by a 4-3 count.

A physical contest from the outset, the River Dragons entered the third period trailing 3-1 before rallying to tie the game on goals by Alexander Jmaeff and Jacob Kelly, with Kelly’s marker coming on the power play with just 2:51 left in regulation.

With time winding down in regulation, Delaware ended up with a late power play of its own and cashed in with 28 seconds remaining in the third to skate away with the 4-3 win.

Lane King scored the other goal for the River Dragons in the loss, while Breandan Colgan made 24 saves.

The River Dragons are back in action on Friday night at the Watertown Wolves. The next home game is April 7 and 8 against the Carolina Thunderbirds. Tickets are on sale now via the Columbus Civic Center Box Office and online at TicketMaster.com.