Prowlers Claw Back to Stun Bobcats in Shootout

The Port Huron Prowlers mounted a late comeback to steal a shootout win from the Blue Ridge Bobcats 3-2 at McMorran Place on November 16. Austin Fetterly ended things with his second shootout winner of the season.

“I played against him in my career as a goalie and he’s not a fun guy to face,” said Prowlers assistant coach Chris Paulin. “We had all the confidence in the world in him, he had all the confidence in the world in himself. He’s unbelievable in the shootout.”

Port Huron fell behind in the first period when Daniel Martin took a shot that slipped through Valtteri Nousiainen and wide. Savva Smirnov put it back in front and it banked off of Nousiainen’s pad and in. 

The Bobcats thought they found the dagger when Aaron Ryback finished off a perfectly worked three-on-two rush to make it 2-0 with under nine minutes left in regulation.

Alex Johnson drew a penalty with just over six to go and five seconds into that power play, he ripped a wrist shot past Hunter Virostek to get the Prowlers on the board.

With less than three minutes on the clock, Lukas Lacny carried the puck into offensive territory and dropped it to Luke James who fired a pass to Ludwig Thellström breaking down the back side. He took a look and picked his spot to put home his first as a Prowler and send the game to overtime.

“He’s a warrior,” Paulin said. “He’s been battling through a hand injury but it doesn’t look like it when he puts the puck on net like that.”

Port Huron got chances to end it in the extra session but Virostek came up with four more saves to get to a shootout. After a scoreless first two rounds, Ryback’s attempt hit Nousiainen’s stick to put the game on Austin Fetterly’s stick. The Prowlers captain beat Virostek five-hole and got his team the extra point. 

Fetterly added an assist to the shootout winner. Nousiainen made 31 saves in net and has now stopped all seven shootout attempts he’s faced this season.

Virostek took the loss after a 36-save performance.

The Prowlers hit the road to Louisiana for games on Nov. 21, 22 and 23. All three games will be streamed live on the PHP Network YouTube channel.

Photo courtesy of Delta Imaging