FPHL Ice Chips - Game Recaps
FPHL Federal Prospects Hockey League

FPHL Ice Chips - Game Recaps

Published on February 27, 2026 under Federal Prospects Hockey League (FPHL) News Release


BINGHAMTON BLACK BEARS at DANBURY HAT TRICKS

HAT TRICKS SHUT OUT BY BINGHAMTON AS WINNING STREAK COMES TO AN END

By Patrick Grudberg

Danbury, CT - The Hat Tricks' three-game win streak came to an end Friday night as the Binghamton Black Bears defeated Danbury 6-0 at the Danbury Ice Arena.

The game was thrust into action 20 seconds in when Eli Rivers earned a penalty shot after slicing through Binghamton's defensive pair, drawing a hooking call on Jesse Anderson. After looking like the Hat Tricks could take a very early 1-0 lead, Rivers' PK shot was denied by Dominik Tmej.

After the first 20 seconds, it was all Binghamton for the rest of the first period. At 2:11, Gehrett Sargis beat Kyle Penton in front to break the deadlock after a clever feed from Kyle Stephan.

Six minutes later, the Hat Tricks went on the powerplay after a Scott Ramaekers slashing penalty. However, it proved to be a nightmare on the man-advantage. C.J. Stubbs picked up a loose neutral zone puck on the breakaway shorthanded and beat Kyle Penton glove side to make it 2-0. 44 seconds later, Danbury turned it over in their own zone and Tyson Kirkby scored the visitors' second shorthanded goal of the powerplay.

Late in the period, Jacob Shankar converted another breakaway opportunity at 16:12 to make it 4-0 entering the 1st intermission.

The second period was relatively quiet until Gehrett Sargis found the puck in the left circle and beat Penton again at 17:09 for his 2nd goal of the game.

The third period was much the same for the empire division leaders. Off an odd-man rush, Tyler Schwindt found Sargis again, crashing in on goal. Schwindt's pass deflected off Sargis' skate and into the goal, completing the 36 year-old veteran's hat trick. For his 3-goal performance, he earned the 1st star of the game.

Despite being outshot 34-39 by the Hat Tricks, Dominik Tmej and the Black Bears defense managed to hold Danbury scoreless, the first time the Hat Tricks have been shut out since their October 18th 0-3 loss vs Binghamton.

The Hat Tricks will be back in action tomorrow, February 28th in Binghamton against the Black Bears at 7pm to conclude off the home-and-home weekend series.

Tmej Shuts Down the Hat Tricks

By Brooks Hill

Danbury, CT - The Binghamton Black Bears defeated the Danbury Hat Tricks 6-0 on Friday night. Dominik Tmej stopped all 39 shots he saw and Gehrett Sargis recorded his first hat trick with Black Bears.

For the second-straight Friday night game, the Black Bears stepped off the bus ready to roll. Binghamton scored four goals in the first period, two of which came shorthanded. Gehrett Sargis started the scoring at 2:11 of the first, followed by a pair of shorthanded tallies. CJ Stubbs scored one on a breakaway and Tyson Kirkby added another one 45 seconds later. Binghamton scored twice on the same Danbury man-advantage. Jacob Shankar finished off the period extending his goal-streak to six games as Binghamton led 4-0 after one.

This slowed down in the second period, but the Black Bears still managed to find the goal sheet. Sargis scored right after a power play concluded, giving the Black Bears their fifth of the night. Through two periods, it was all Binghamton. 5-0 Black Bears

Danbury threatened the shutout in tact in the third, but Dominik Tmej withstood the test. Tmej finished with 39 saves, earning the shutout victory, his fourth of the season. Sargis was able to score the only goal of this period as well, securing his first hat trick as a Black Bear. Binghamton wins 6-0.

BILOXI BREAKERS at COLUMBUS RIVER DRAGONS

COLUMBUS BACK ON WINNING TRACK TAKING DOWN BILOXI

By Liam Gotimer

Columbus, GA -The Columbus River Dragons delivered a dominant performance on Friday night, shutting out the Biloxi Breakers 4-0 at the Columbus Civic Center in Columbus, Georgia.

Tyler Roy earned the start between the pipes for the River Dragons, while Anton Borodkin got the nod in goal for the Breakers.

Columbus wasted no time setting the tone, striking just 35 seconds into the contest. Kyle Moore opened the scoring after Mike Winn fired a shot from the blue line. Moore quickly capitalized on the rebound, burying the puck to give the River Dragons an early 1-0 advantage.

The River Dragons extended their lead late in the first period. At the 16:32 mark, Tyler Barrow, Alex Storjohann, and Cody Wickline executed a perfectly timed three-on-two rush. Barrow finished the play with precision, finding the back of the net and, in the process, claiming the league lead in goals.

Columbus carried its momentum into the second stanza. At 15:58 of the period, Kyle Moore netted his second goal of the night after receiving a flawless drop pass from Ryan Hunter. Moore's finish gave the River Dragons a commanding 3-0 lead heading into the final frame.

In the third period, Columbus sealed the victory. With 3:16 remaining in regulation (16:44), Tyler Barrow added his second goal of the game, assisted by Josh Colten and Cody Wickline, putting the finishing touches on a complete team effort.

Roy was outstanding in net, turning aside all 31 shots he faced to secure the shutout victory for Columbus. Borodkin made several key stops but ultimately suffered the loss for Biloxi.

Columbus will be back in action tomorrow night, for the second half of a home and home with Biloxi. Watch live on our YouTube Channel, beginning at 7:35PM EST

Roy Blanks Breakers

By Devin Dobek

Columbus, GA - The Breakers hit the road to the Columbus Civic Center one final time with hopes to pull off an upset in a hostile environment against the River Dragons. Tyler Roy's 31 save shutout combined with a pair of goals from bothTyler Barrow and Kyle Moore would be all the Dragons needed en route to a 4-0 victory.

Period 1 couldn't have started much quicker for Columbus. Just 34 seconds in, Kyle Moore cleaned up a loose puck on the doorstep in front of a sprawling Anton Borodkin and buried it to ignite the arena and put the home team up 1-0. The Breakers would settle in, generating some quality opportunities on Tyler Roy, but struggling to find the equalizer. Back and forth we went into the final five minutes, when at 16:32 Tyler Barrow finished a textbook 3-on-2 from Wickline and Storjohann to double the lead at 2-0. The Dragons led in shots 17-11 through the opening 20.

The middle frame has been the issue for Biloxi all season long, and certainly things didn't look great when Al Rotiroti (Making Pro Debut) was booked for a high-stick just 70 seconds into period 2. However, a solid Breaker kill against the top ranked Dragon powerplay unit seemed to generate some momentum. Columbus began to scramble, taking 4 minor penalties and playing on their heels. The Breakers had some incredible chances but seemed to find everything but the net. At 15:58, Columbus struck again, with Kyle Moore slamming home his 2nd of the night off a cross-ice feed by Ryan Hunter to make it 3-0. Biloxi outshot Columbus 12-8 in the second.

Period 3 had a similar tempo to period 2, with not a whole lot of offense and some solid chances for both teams. The back half of the frame Columbus began to run away, controlling the possessions and clogging any sort of potential momentum for Biloxi. At 16:44, Tyler Barrow fired home his league-leading 33rd goal of the season under the blocker of Borodkin to cement the scoring at 4-0. The Dragons outshot the Breakers 37-31 in full time.

The River Dragons will travel to Biloxi tomorrow night for the season series finale at 7:00 CST inside the Mississippi Coast Coliseum.

PORT HURON PROWLERS at INDIANA SENTINELS

Prowlers Shut Out Sentinels 5-0

By Andy Poetzinger

Columbus, IN - For the tenth time this season, the Indiana Sentinels meet up with the Port Huron Prowlers for the first of a three-game weekend against their archrivals. In preparation for the weekend, the Sentinels made some personnel changes in the locker room parting ways with Ryan Glazer, Ashton Collazo and Jhuwon Davis while adding Noah Bradburn, Brendan Bauer, Peter Stojcevski and Kristers Bormanis to the group. Bradburn, Bauer and Stojecvski all played together at Sentinels head coach Everett Thompson's alma mater: Davenport University.

The game started fast and furious with a lot of physical play leading to a fight between Romeo Torain and Brett Morich that got both benches and the crowd energized. After a Sentinels powerplay that was unsuccessful, but generated a couple of exceptionally good chances, Port Huron opened the scoring with Blake Anderson's 10th goal of the season. That is how the first would end with Port Huron outshooting Indiana 14-8 in the period.

The Prowlers would build on their momentum from the first period and score twice in the second. Vincent Dekumbis on a Sentinels giveaway behind their own net potted his first of two on the night to make it 2-0. Under a minute later, Lukas Lacny would grab his eleventh of the year on a tic tac toe passing play to make it 3-0. The Sentinels would have an opportunity just before the period would end as they were granted a full two-minute two-man advantage where once again they generated plenty of chances but could not find the back of the net.

In the third period, Port Huron would put the game out of reach with goals from Jaime Bucell and Vincent Dekumbis tallying for the Prowlers. While the Sentinels would get another five powerplay chances in the third period, they still were unable to find a way to beat Bailey Huber and he would go on to pick up his seventh win of the season, along with his first shutout.

Indiana and Port Huron were tied in shots at 29 on the night. The Sentinels would finish the night 0 for 11, while Port Huron would finish 0 for 4 on the night.

Tomorrow the Sentinels and the Prowlers duke it out for the second of three straight nights. The puck drops at 7:30pm ET, and the Body Armor Pre-Game Show starts at 7:15 pm with Jim Mirabello and Andy Poetzinger. Catch all the action on the Indiana Sentinels YouTube channel!

Huber's First Pro Shutout Highlights Series Opener

By Will Wiegelman

Columbus, IN - Rookie netminder Bailey Huber made 29 saves to pick up his first career shutout as the Prowlers took down the Indiana Sentinels 5-0 in Columbus, Indiana. Port Huron moved to 4-0-0 on its six-game road stretch.

"It feels great," Huber said. "All the boys are super excited for me. The clock was ticking and it was 'oh this could happen.' It wasn't easy, we were killing a lot of penalties, but our PK did a great job tonight."

The Prowlers got the scoring started with under seven minutes to go in the second. Bobby Price split a pair of Sentinels, spun backward and found Blake Anderson driving the net for a tap in.

Early in the second, Vincent Dekumbis and Lukas Lacny struck 41 seconds apart to open up a 3-0 advantage heading to the third.

Port Huron capped the scoring with Jamie Bucell picking up his second goal in as many games and Dekumbis tucking his second of the night around Chris Curr's pad. The clock struck zero and the Prowlers emptied their bench to congratulate the rookie netminder.

"[Huber] has been playing extremely well for a while now," said Prowlers associate head coach Chris Paulin. "This is the best he's looked in practice all season this week. He's a very, very good goalie with a high ceiling and he's taken strides to find it. We're all really excited for him."

Anderson added a pair of assists to his goal while Price dished out three helpers. The Port Huron penalty kill went 9-9.

"Great goaltending will make your penalty kill look good," Paulin said. "Overall, I think it could have been a lot better today, but the goalie is a huge part of the penalty kill. He's a big reason why they kept it out of the net.

Curr made 32 saves in the loss.

The middle game of the three-in-three series between these teams is at 7:30 P.M. in Columbus. The game can be seen live on the PHP Network YouTube channel.

WATERTOWN WOLVES at TWIN CITY THUNDERBIRDS

Thunderbirds Win Thriller Over Wolves 8-6

By Kendall Grayson

Winston-Salem, NC -The Twin City Thunderbirds won a thriller over the Watertown Wolves by a final score of 8-6 Friday night at the Winston-Salem Fairgrounds Arena. Twin City leading scorer Gus Ford netted a hat trick in the victory. Jon Buttitta, Corey Cunningham, Nate Keeley, Jan Salak, and Roman Kraemer also scored goals for the Thunderbirds in the win. Boris Babik recorded the win in goal for the Thunderbirds in a 10-save-on-12-shot performance.

Egor Filippov gave Watertown a one-goal advantage at 9:59 of Friday's opening period. Yefim Mishkin recorded an assist on the scoring play. Trevor Neumann netted a goal with less than two minutes to play in the 1st period to increase the Wolves' lead to two goals. Troy Andrews and Hunter Hall each notched an assist on the even-strength goal. Jon Buttitta scored his eighth goal of the year with less than two minutes to play in Friday's 1st period to put the Thunderbirds on the scoreboard. Twin City outshot Watertown by a 19-9 margin during the opening period of Friday night's contest, but trailed by a score of 2-1 entering the 2nd period.

The 2nd period of Friday's game featured six scoring plays, four by Twin City. Corey Cunningham scored a goal ninety-six seconds into the 2nd period to bring the game to a 2-2 tie. Jan Salak recorded an assist on the play. Nate Keeley scored a goal less than a minute later to give Twin City a one-goal lead in the matchup. Keeley's goal was assisted by Dionne Demke and Egor Ramanau. Watertown's Egor Filippov scored a goal at 6:59 of the 2nd period to tie the game. Filippov's goal was assisted by Vladamir Fadeev and Yefim Mishkin. Maquis Grant-Mentis netted a go-ahead goal for Watertown at 11:45 of the 2nd period. Grant-Mentis' goal was assisted by Darion Benchich and Ian McDonald. Twin City made a change in net following Watertown's fourth goal of the evening. Boris Babik replaced Chad Purdy, who finished the game with 13 saves on 17 shots. Jan Salak tied the game with a powerplay goal at 18:03 of the 2nd period. Corey Cunningham and Connor Craig each recorded an assist on Salak's scoring play. The final goal of Friday's high-scoring middle period was netted by Gus Ford with less than fourteen seconds left. Ford's goal was his first of the night, and was assisted by Zach White and Connor Craig. Twin City outshot Watertown by a 13-8 margin during the 2nd period, and the Thunderbirds entered Friday night's final period with a one-goal advantage in the showdown.

Roman Kraemer scored an even-strength goal at 3:32 of the 3rd period to give Twin City a 6-4 lead in the battle. Gus Ford and Zach White each notched an assist on the goal. Gus Ford netted his second goal of the night at 14:37 of the 3rd period. Ford's goal was assisted by Josh Labelle and Connor Craig. Watertown answered Twin City's run of four consecutive goals with back-to-back scoring plays at 15:36 and 17:09 of the 3rd period. Brad Reitter's even strength goal at 15:36 of the period was assisted by Trevor Neumann and Hunter Hall. Hunter Hall scored the Wolves final goal of the night on the powerplay with less than three minutes to play. Egor Filippov and Matthew Gordon each collected an assist on the scoring play. Gus Ford scored the final goal of Friday night's battle to seal a two-goal victory for Twin City. Ford's goal was his third of the night, and was netted with less than five seconds to play. Zach White and Roman Kraemer each recorded an assist on Ford's hat trick goal. Watertown outshot Twin City by a 12-11 margin during the 3rd period, but the Thunderbirds outshot the Wolves by an overall margin of 43-29 during Friday night's game.

Boris Babik improved his personal record in goal for Twin City to 13-15-1 with Friday's win. Ricardo Gonzalez dropped the game in goal for Watertown in a 35-save-on-43-shot performance. Gus Ford was awarded the 1st Star of the game, with teammates Roman Kraemer and Connor Craig collecting 2nd and 3rd Star honors, respectively. Twin City improved to 18-20-1 on the 2025-2026 season in the 8-6 win. Friday's game was played in front of 2,680 fans at the Winston-Salem Fairgrounds Arena.

Twin City returns to action tomorrow night in a rematch against the Wolves. Tomorrow's night's promotion is "Pillow, Pucks, and Pantry" presented by Huntington National Bank. Puck drop for Saturday's game is scheduled for 6:05pm ET.

BATON ROUGE ZYDECO at TOPEKA SCARECROWS

Topeka Starts Strong But Folds In Third, Lose 3-2

By Jon Kliment

Topeka, KS -Topeka came into their last home weekend for a month aiming to beat out the Zydeco and restore their path to the playoffs. With just 7 weeks to go in the season this time of year sees the real depth of a team come out. Both teams were busy making moves and tonight would give both coaches a gauge for where they are at.

The Scarecrows came out attacking and pushed the pressure throughout the first period. The pressure cracked Bailey Stephens as Cory Checco took a Boston Bird pass skated down the far side and when he hit the top of the circle he picked his corner and fired it into the back of the twine for the 1-0 lead just 9:16 into the game.

Topeka continued to pour the pressure on in the second frame as early on the Scarecrows found their second goal of the game as Douglas Blaisdell took a Bird pass at the point and fired it on net at Stephens giving Topeka the 2-0 edge. Late in the period however Scott Shorrock took a Jake Cox pass cross zone and beat an outstretched Sammy Bernard to bring Baton Rouge back to within a goal 2-1 at 17:19 of the period.

In the final twenty minutes the Zydeco found a way to tile the ice their way. Curtis Hansen led a charge down the ice and found Austin Weber cross zone to beat Bernard and tie the game up 2-2 at 5:37 of the period. As time ticked down with just 5:19 remaining Ilnur Madiarov threw a puck towards the net that awkwardly connected with Jake Cox and found room behind Bernard for the 3-2 victory.

Bernard stopped 18 of 21 in the loss.

The Scarecrows return to action tomorrow night at 7:05pm as they finish out their homestand against Baton Rouge on Free T-Shirt Night!

PEE DEE ICECATS at BLUE RIDGE BOBCATS

Pee Dee Continues Domination of Blue Ridge, Wins Fifth Straight in Series 5-2

By Brett Wiseman

Wytheville, VA - Meeting for the first time since November 26th, the Pee Dee IceCats picked up right where they left off against the homestanding Blue Ridge Bobcats, potting four unanswered goals en route to their fifth straight win in the series, 5-2 before a crowd of nearly 2,000 at Hitachi Energy Arena.

Both squads took a scoreless first period to feel each other out in Pee Dee's first visit to Blue Ridge since late October.

Nick Stuckless opened the scoring 8:14 into the middle frame, sniping a wrist shot high past Parker Rutherford and just under the bar off a great zone entry drop pass from Nikita Kozyrev. Nick Gullo potted a rebound past Anthony Shrum to answer for the Ice Cats 5:20 later.

Mike Mercurio converted on a breakaway set up by Filip Hlavac in the midst of a 4-on-4 sequence to put the Bobcats back ahead briefly 2-1. The lead, though, was short lived and would be the last Blue Ridge tally of the evening.

Exactly 2 minutes later Dominiks Marcinkevics backhanded one just past Shrum's pad to send the game to the second intermission tied at 2, and beginning a stretch of 4 unanswered Ice Cats goals.

Alexander Legkov scored the game winner at the 6:57 mark of the third. Dominiks Marcinkevics and Vadim Frolov each added tallies to seal the deal in the final minute.

Both teams rematch tomorrow night at 7:30 pm.

THREE-GOAL THIRD GIVES ICECATS WIN

By Tom Callahan

Wytheville, VA - Alex Legkov broke a 2-2 tie at 6:57 of the third period as the Pee Dee IceCats rode a three-goal third period to a 5-2 win over the Blue Ridge Bobcats on Friday at Hitatchi Energy Arena.

Nick Gullo and Dominiks Marcinkevics scored for Pee Dee as the teams traded second period markers after a scoreless first period.

After Legkov's go-ahead goal, both teams traded scoring chances down the stretch before Patriks Marcinkevics scored his league-leading 32nd goal of the season into an empty net to make it 4-2. Then the IceCats went right back down the ice and wrapped the scoring with a tremendous wrist shot from Vadim Frolov for the 5-2 final.

Parker Rutherford stopped 32 shots for the win in net.

The teams rematch tomorrow night at 7:30 pm, with the Powers Properties Pregame Show starting 15 minutes prior to puck drop on the IceCats Broadcast Network.

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Federal Prospects Hockey League Stories from February 27, 2026


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