FPHL Federal Prospects Hockey League

FPHL Ice Chips - Game Recaps

February 17, 2024 - Federal Prospects Hockey League (FPHL) News Release


WYTHEVILLE BOBCATS at ELMIRA RIVER SHARKS

Elmira Sweeps The Bobcats, Win 4-2

by Jon Kliment

Elmira, NY - Coming off a narrow win Friday night against the visiting Bobcats, Elmira needed a win to take the 2-game season series over the continental division foe. With a Watertown overtime win last night the River Sharks sit just 2 points ahead of the Wolves for the final playoff spot.

Blue Ridge took a few penalties to start things off as Elmira had a 5 on 3 and a 5 on 4 opportunity but couldn't find the back of the net. As the period ticked on later and later the Bobcats were able to find the back of the net first as after a turnover in their own zone Joe Frazee buried a pass from former River Shark Ricards Jelenskis past Sammy Bernard for the 1-0 lead.

The Bobcats continued to push pressure early in the second as on a power play Jakub Volf found the back of the net on Sammy Bernard to increase the Blue Ridge lead to 2-0. After an elongated delay to an injury with just under seven minutes to go the River Sharks finally found their goal scoring touch as Darius Davidson carried a puck in on a two on one and dished a perfect pass to Davide Gaeta to cut the lead to one, 2-1. It took two minutes and eight seconds before the same opportunity presented itself and as Liskiewicz read pass Davidson slapped it five hole for the tying goal 2-2.

The final frame saw new life for Elmira as after a scrum behind the net Steven Klinck threw a puck out to the slot where Gaeta blasted it from the slot behind Liskiewicz to give the River Sharks the lead 3-2. It was back and forth for a while, but 7:33 later the River Sharks struck again as Davidson took a pass from Klinck and tried to deke Liskewicz, but the puck bounced off the pad into the slot and Darius rushed up turned around and fired it into the empty cage for the 4-2 win.

Bernard stopped 33 of 35 in the win, his 10th of the season.

Elmira goes on the road next week in Danbury Friday night at 7:30pm. Follow along on Youtube or Mixlr. #FeartheFin

PORT HURON PROWLERS at MOTOR CITY ROCKER

Rockers Sweep Prowlers In Come From Behind Win

by Ben Szilagy

Fraser, MI -The Motor City Rockers earned a weekend sweep against Port Huron behind a come from behind 4-3 overtime win on Saturday night.

On Friday night the Prowlers out shot the Rockers 12-to-6 and had nothing to show for it. Saturday night, however, was a different story for Port Huron as it out shot Motor City 13-to-9, but had two goals to go along with it.

The first goal was scored 8:00 into the first period when Trevor Babin was sprawled in the crease as he stopped a Vincent Dekumbis shot. As Babin was in the splits, Dan Chartrand poked at the puck until it went into the net for a 1-0 lead.

With 3:52 left in the first period, the Prowlers struck again when Chartrand chipped the puck from the nearside corner to the high slot. Evan Foley was able to get a stick on the puck, and fired an awkward shot to the far side post that caught Babin out of position on the glove side for a 2-0 lead.

During the intermission, Rocker coach Gordie Brown did his best Burgess Meredith impersonation and yelled "now" as the Rockers took over in the second period.

Six minutes into the second period the Rockers cut into the Prowler lead, 2-1, with a goal by Mike Winn for his third of the season. Winn collected the puck at the point and fired it towards the net. It appeared to deflect off a Port Huron player, and in.

Two and a half minutes later the Motor City tied the score on the power play.

The puck was cleared to the Rocker end where Babin came out the crease to play it up ahead to Josh Colten. Colten then fed the puck to Scott Coash. Coash deked his way to the far post and put away a back-hand for a 2-2 game and his 20th of the season with 11:41 left in the second period.

The third period put the Rockers in a precarious position as it had to kill eight consecutive penalty minutes, all killed successfully, and an additional power play late in the third.

After Motor City killed the first eight minutes, one of which was a double minor, the Rockers earned a goal off the stick of Jonathan Juliano on a breakaway for his 14th of the season after DeVon Fields fed him the puck from the neutral zone.

Port Huron was able to tie it back up with 3:22 left in the third period when Foley batted a loose puck past Babin that knotted the scoreboard back up at 3-3 and forced overtime.

The Rockers ended the game 35-seconds in when TJ Delaney chipped the puck ahead to Colten creating an odd man rush. The puck was initially saved but chipped back in by Delaney for the game winning goal.

Motor City will host Columbus for a three game series this upcoming weekend at Big Boy Arena as two of the top teams in their respective division square off for the first time this season.

ROCKERS SWEEP PROWLERS IN OT

by Will Wiegelman

Fraser, MI -The Port Huron Prowlers got a point but fell to the Motor City Rockers 4-3 in overtime on Feb. 17 at Big Boy Arena. The Rockers take five of a possible six points in the two-game weekend set.

The shorthanded Prowlers came out flying in the first and were rewarded with a pair of goals from Dan Chartrand and Evan Foley. Their linemate, Vincent Dekumbis, was credited with an assist on both tallies.

In the second, the Rockers stormed back. Mike Winn got Motor City on the board before Scott Coash tied it with a power-play marker.

The Prowlers had eight minutes of man-advantage time in the early stages of the third but couldn't convert. Seconds after the final penalty expired, Jonathan Juliano took a stretch pass and scored on the breakaway to give his team the lead.

With under four minutes to go, Evan Foley batted the puck out of the air and in on the back post to send the game to overtime. TJ Delaney stole the puck in his own end and gave a pass to Josh Colten who's shot was stopped by Makar Sokolov but Delaney was right there to bang home to loose puck in the crease and end it.

Foley's two goals gave him second-star honors while Chartrand added an assist to his tally and Dekumbis got a helper on all three Port Huron strikes. Sokolov made 20 saves.

Colten had three assists while TJ Sneath dished out two. Trevor Babin stopped 34 shots in his second start of the weekend.

The Prowlers get a week off before heading on the road to Danbury on March 1, 2 and 3. All three games will be available live on the PHP Network YouTube channel.

DANBURY HAT TRICKS at WATERTOWN WOLVES

Hat Tricks Rebound to Down Wolves

by Jeff Barrett

Watertown, NY - Following a 3-2 overtime win on Friday night, the Wolves and Hat Tricks squared off again inside the Watertown Municipal Arena.

The Wolves would be bit early by some undisciplined penalties, and the Hat Tricks would make them pay for it.

The first power play goal came at 6:46 of the first from Johnny Ruiz assisted by Josh Labelle and Daniel McKitrick.

At 9:53 the Hat Tricks extended their lead to 2-0 on a Jarod Yau power play goal assisted by Corey Cunningham and Zach Pamaylaon.

The power play scoring frenzy continued at the 17:36 with John Scully would make the score 3-0. Assists on the goal belonged to Josh Labelle and Johnny Ruiz.

The Hat Tricks would take the 3 goal lead to the room, while also outshooting Watertown 19-7

Nick DiNicola continued the scoring for the Hat Tricks at just 2:17 of the second period assisted by Zach Pamaylaon and Josh Labelle, with an even strength effort making the score 4-0.

Just :35 later the score would extend to 5-0 on a Corey Cunningham goal, assisted by John Scully and Daniel McKitrick.

At 4:18 of the second the Wolves would find a little life on a Vladislav Pavlov goal making it 5-1. Assists on the goal went to Mike Mercurio and Aleksandr Gamzatov.

Pavlov would add a second goal at 6:32 cutting a little deeper into the Hat Tricks lead 5-2. With assists coming from Gamzatov and William Godbout.

The second period ended with the 5-2 score with Danbury continuing to outshoot Watertown 18-16.

The third period found the Hat Tricks John Scully pushing the lead back to 6-2 at the 8:50 mark assisted by Labelle and McKitrick.

At 12:50 of the third, Danbury added their 4th power play goal of the game on a Brandon Stojcevski goal, assisted by Jarod Yau and Michael Falanga.

Danbury outshot Watertown 22-7 in the third and 59-30 for the game.

The Wolves and Hat Tricks will battle one more time this weekend on Sunday night at 7:05

HAT TRICKS ROUT WATERTOWN 7-2 TO SNAP FIVE-GAME SKID

by Doug Lattuca

Watertown, NY -Thanks to five power-play goals, the Hat Tricks dominated the Wolves 7-2 on Saturday night to snap a five-game losing streak. The Hat Tricks had six different goal-scorers in the victory.

Danbury outshot Watertown 54-30. Hat Tricks goalie Conor McCollum made 28 saves in his second start of the weekend.

At 6:46 of the first period, the Hat Tricks were granted the first of 16 power play opportunities and forward Jonny Ruiz - as he did twice on Friday - slapped a one-timer past Eloi Bouchard for the game's first goal. About three minutes later, the Hat Tricks struck again on the power play when defenseman Jarod Yau pounded one in from the top of the slot. Danbury continued its scoring with yet another power-play strike, this time from forward John Scully at 17:36. Scully flipped the puck under the bar to extend the lead to three.

In the middle frame, the Hat Tricks notched two goals in less than a minute. At 2:17, forward Nick DiNicola tapped home the Hat Tricks' fourth goal of the night. Just 35 seconds later, forward Corey Cunningham slid the puck through the legs of replacement goalie Spencer Kozlowski to push the Hat Tricks advantage to five.

Watertown got on the board at 4:18 of the second with a goal from forward Vladislav Pavlov. Two minutes later, at 6:32, Pavlov buried another to cut the Hat Tricks' lead to two.

In the third period, the Hat Tricks pulled away adding two more on the power play. First, Scully netted his second of the night at 8:50. Brandon Stojcevski followed it up at 12:50 to balloon the lead to 7-2.

The Hat Tricks go for the series win Sunday night in Watertown. The puck is set to drop at 7:05 p.m.

BATON ROUGE ZYDECO at COLUMBUS RIVER DRAGONS

River Dragons Sweep Series

by Tom Callahan

Columbus, GA -The Columbus River Dragons took both halves of a weekend series with the Baton Rouge Zydeco after a 4-1 win on Saturday night at the Columbus Civic Center.

The game was scoreless into the second period when the River Dragons scored a pair of power play goals to take a 2-0 lead after two periods of play.

Just nine seconds into the third period, Justin MacDonald scored his 23rd goal of the season and extended his league record scoring streak to 25 games. After Mathias Tellstrom scored to close the gap to 3-1 Josh Pietrantonio's shorthanded marker put the game away for Columbus.

Notes:

Columbus put up a season-high 31 shots in the second period, and ended up with 62 shots on goal in the game, its second-highest total this season (64).

The River Dragons Tim Hortons win streak is now 15 games, extending a franchise record.

Justin MacDonald's league record scoring streak reached 25 games on Saturday with his third period goal. MacDonald has 19-36-55 over that stretch.

Breandan Colgan collected his ninth consecutive win with 22 saves.

Columbus will now head to Michigan for a three-game set with the Motor City Rockers next Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The next home game for the River Dragons is Friday, March 8 at 7:35 pm as they host the Carolina Thunderbirds. Tickets are on sale now through the Civic Center Box Office and online at TicketMaster.com.

ZYDECO LOSE NINTH CONSECUTIVE GAME, FALL 4-1

by Joseph Furtado

Columbus, GA -After suffering an 11-1 loss Friday night, the Baton Rouge Zydeco took to the ice again, hoping to even the weekend series against the Columbus River Dragons.

After a scoreless opening 20 minutes of hockey, Baton Rouge did its job defensively to keep the score 0-0. However, things took a turn in the second period, when the high-scoring team in the Federal Prospects Hockey League began to get its offense going. The River Dragons opened the scoring with Cody Wickline at 05:21 then Alex Storjohann would add another one goal at 18:19 to make it 2-0. The River Dragons closed the second period with 31 shots and the lead heading into the final 20 minutes of hockey.

Opening the third period, Columbus continued where they left off with a goal from Justin MacDonald nine seconds in to make it 3-0 River Dragons. Baton Rouge would manage to find a goal late from Mathias Tellstrome at 11:23 to make it 3-1. However, a short-handed goal from Josh Pietrantonio at 15:16 (4-1) put the game away for Columbus to extend their win streak to 15 games.

The Zydeco suffered their ninth consecutive loss and will finish their season-long 19-game next week before heading home to face the Carolina Thunderbirds on February 29th.

CAROLINA THUNDERBIRDS at MISSISSIPPI SEA WOLVES

SEA WOLVES FALL TO THUNDERBIRDS, 5-3, IN OFFENSIVE SHOWCASE

Liarakos tallies three points, crosses 70-point mark in loss

by Javik Blake

Biloxi MS -Yianni Liarakos became the second Federal Prospects Hockey League player of the season to cross the 70-point mark with two goals and an assist, but the Carolina Thunderbirds (19-7-1-9) scored three of the final four goals in the match-up to take a 5-3 win over the Mississippi Sea Wolves (14-4-2-18) at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum on Saturday night.

Jan Salak gave the Thunderbirds an early 1-0 lead for the second straight night at the 6:46 mark of the first period, but Liarockos quickly buried his league-leading 31st goal of the year at 8:58 of the period to tie the game. Nate Keeley gave the Thunderbirds a 2-1 lead at 10:40 of the period, but the Sea Wolves responded again, this time with a tally from Sam Turner at 16:23 of the period on the power play.

In the second, Carolina took a 3-2 lead with a goal from Roman Kraemer at 3:31 and extended the lead to two with Gus Ford's team-leading 25th goal of the year at 10:34. The Sea Wolves got within one with the team's second power-play goal of the night from Liarakos, his 32nd of the year, at 16:34, making it 4-3.

The two teams traded action in the third period before Dawson Baker buried the empty netter at 19:54 of the third period to give Carolina a 5-3 lead.

The Sea Wolves will hit the road next weekend with games against the Blue Ridge Bobcats and the Thunderbirds. The road trip begins on Friday at 6:30 CT against the Blue Ridge Bobcats from Wytheville, Virginia.

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