Cardiac 'Cats Complete Comeback, Sweep Dragons with 6-5 Win
FPHL Blue Ridge Bobcats

Cardiac 'Cats Complete Comeback, Sweep Dragons with 6-5 Win

Published on October 18, 2025 under Federal Prospects Hockey League (FPHL)
Blue Ridge Bobcats News Release


WYTHEVILLE, VA - For the second straight night in front of a crowd of nearly 2,000 at Hitachi Energy Arena, the Blue Ridge "Cardiac Cats" completed a multi-goal comeback and sealed their first ever season opening sweep and first ever weekend sweep of the vaunted Columbus River Dragons with a thrilling 6-5 win.

In a physical and eventful first period, it was Columbus who corralled full control of the contest early in the opening frame, chasing starting Bobcats netminder Anton Borodkin in his club debut with three goals in the first 7:08 of the game. Anthony Shrum came in relief of Borodkin and steadied the crease for the remaining 52-plus minutes of regulation.

For the second consecutive night, the "Buff State Boys" teamed up for the Bobcats opening goal of the evening, as Nikita Kosyrev found Nick Stuckless 1-on-1 with Columbus tender Tyler Roy, and the Orangeville, ON native made no mistake as he twisted Roy inside-out with a series of smooth moves for a power play goal to cut the CRD lead to 3-1 a little over halfway into the opening frame. The 'Cats continued to claw back, with Brandon Reller finding Justin Daly on the doorstep out of a net mouth scramble late in the period to pull Blue Ridge within 1 after twenty minutes of play.

Columbus counterpunched early in the middle frame, with goals from Ryan Galvin and Tyler Barrow just over six minutes apart to restore the River Dragons three goal advantage. Barrow's marker would, however, be his team's last of the evening, as Anthony Shrum shut down a multitude of opportunities in the ensuing 33 minutes of play to keep Blue Ridge within striking distance.

The Cardiac 'Cats dug their claws in once again and climbed back into the contest late in the second period when Egor Ramanau dusted, darted, dangled and delivered to captain Danny Martin for a backdoor tap-in goal to pull Blue Ridge within two after 2.

Kyle Heitzner sniped home his first as a Bobcat 6:22 into the third to bring the Bobcats. Stuckless and Kozyrev combined once again for the equalizer at the 15:11 mark of the final frame to send the raucous crowd of 1,983 at Hitachi Energy Arena into a frenzy.

Just a minute and 13 seconds later, Filip Hlavac one-timed a pinballing puck off a carom towards the net that was redirected by Reller through traffic and into the back of the net for the eventual game winning goal. Reller earned third star honors on the night for the GWG. Heitzner's pair of points on the night earned him second star, and Nick Stuckless took home first star honors for his pair of goals on the evening. Another honorable mention for Shrum in net, who stopped 30 of 32 shots faced in his 52:13 of relief.

The Bobcats are back in action next weekend, renewing their rivalry with the Twin City Thunderbirds on Friday night on the road in Winston-Salem, then return home to begin a new rivalry with the Pee Dee IceCats on Saturday, Oct. 25th. Tickets for Halloween Costume Night presented by Aschenbach Automotive Group next Saturday night are available at blueridgebobcats.com/tickets, the arena box office or by phone at 276-335-2100.

Check out the Blue Ridge Bobcats Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



Federal Prospects Hockey League Stories from October 18, 2025


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central