Prowlers Stage Comeback, Earn Point in Danbury

The Port Huron Prowlers found offense in the third period to tie the game but fell 4-3 to the Danbury Hat Tricks in overtime on Dec. 23 at Danbury Ice Arena. Jacob Ratcliffe scored the overtime winner on the power play. 

"Biggest thing is we're losing battles," said Prowlers assistant coach Chris Paulin. "There's too many 50-50 pucks that we're not winning, too many times when we have a chance to win the battle and we pull up. I don't know if we're scared but that has to stop."

Jarod Yau opened the scoring with a shot through traffic that found the back of the net in the first. 2:02 later, Zach Pamalayaon showed off his skating skills around the offensive zone before dishing a feed to Ratcliffe for an easy one-timer.

In the second, Chase Harwell got his way to the slot to pot his second goal in as many games and put the Hat Tricks up 3-0 heading into the third.

Midway through the final period of regulation, Matt Graham found Liam Freeborn who stuffed in a short-side shot to get Port Huron on the board. It was the Prowlers’ first goal in over six periods of play dating back to their Dec. 16 game against Carolina.

A couple minutes later, Brandon Picard stepped over the blue line and fired a wrist shot over the pad and under the blocker of Connor McCollum to pull Port Huron within one. With Makar Sokolov on the bench for an extra attacker, Frank Schumacher whacked home his first of the season in the final minute of regulation to send the game to overtime.

In the extra session, Tucker Scantlebury was whistled for tripping and Ratcliffe scored his second of the night with a blast from just inside the blue line.

"I really love the way the guys battled in the third but we didn't deserve to win that game," Paulin said. "We didn't show up the way we wanted to in the first two periods. We found our legs in the third and finally got some calls going our way and took advantage of it. The way we played in the third period, we string that together for 60 minutes, we dominate that game, but we didn't."

Freeborn had a goal and an assist for Port Huron while Sokolov made 31 saves.

Ratcliffe led the way for Danbury with a three point night while Yau added an assist to his goal. McCollum made 30 saves in the win.

The Prowlers are back at it in a three-in-three with the Motor City Rockers on Dec. 29, 30 and 31 with the first two games coming at McMorran Place with 7:05 P.M. puck drops. Tickets are available at phprowlers.com/tickets or by calling the box office at 810-985-6166.

Photo courtesy of Delta Imaging