Prowlers Jump Over Dashers for 4th Place
By Nate Williamson
Danville, IL - The Danville Dashers fell at the hands of the Port Huron Prowlers in a Friday night matchup at the David S. Palmer Arena. The Prowlers snatched a much needed win from the Dashers to move into 4th place in the FHL standings.
The Dashers fell behind with just over three minutes gone in the first period after Carey Shea knocked the puck away from Dashers goaltender Matt Kaludis, who was attempting to freeze the puck. Shea deflected the puck over to a trailing Austin Fetterly, who slotted the puck past Kaludis to open the scoring. Promising build-up play from the Dashers resulted in an Eric Masters shot finding the stick of Patrick Zilak, who passed into the slot for a Justin Brausen finish past an outstretched Cory Simons.
The second period went down as a scoreless despite the best efforts from the power play units, as Port Huron killed two penalties and Danville killed three.
At 4:23 in the third period, Zachary Zulkanycz scored off assists from Matt Robertson and Austin Fetterly. Port Huron's 2-1 lead would only last for about six minutes until Justin Brausen scored his second of the night off another assist from Patrick Zilak. The tie would be short lived, as Shea Carey found the back of the net at 13:19 to dampen the night for what looked like a rejuvenated Dasher team. Austin Fetterly would get his second assist of the night on that goal, and Jonathon Juliano would also get an assist. Despite all the offensive pressure from Danville, including a late power play, Carey's goal would stand as the winner.
The Dashers dropped their ninth in a row and fell to 5th place in the Federal Hockey League, despite looking like the better team for much of the night. The two teams will face off again Saturday on Toyota Night at the David S. Palmer Arena, with the puck set to drop at 7:05 PM.
Photo credit: LMB Studios