BLOOMINGTON (Ill.) - Tad Lardner, Jamie Carroll and Jeff Zehr each had one goal and one assist as Port Huron sent the Bloomington PrairieThunder to its fourth straight loss with a 5-1 victory before 3,888 people Friday night at U.S. Cellular Coliseum in International Hockey League action.
The loss dropped the PrairieThunder's record to 4-6-0-0 ahead of Saturday's 7:05 p.m. home game against Muskegon (7-2-0-0). Port Huron won its fourth straight game to move its record to 6-5-0-0.
Zehr and Jamie Lovell scored goals in the first period to give Port Huron a lead it would never relinquish. Zehr scored 5:37 into the game off assists from Nick Lindberg and Carroll.
Lovell's goal came with 1:54 remaining in the first period with an assist going to Zehr. Leo Thomas pulled Bloomington within, 2-1, with 36 seconds remaining in the second period on assists by Travis Granbois and Brett Holmberg.
Port Huron erupted for three goals in the third period by Carroll, Lardner and Kris Vernarsky. Ian Turner, Daniel Tetrault and Lardner had assists.
The IceHawks owned a 29-26 advantage in shots on goal and goalie Larry Sterling stopped 25 of 26 Bloomington shots to earn the victory. Ryan Ludzik was the losing goalie, stopping 24 of 29 shots.
Neither team was successful on the power play. Bloomington had four chances, while Port Huron had six.
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