When the Prowlers hosted their home opener on Friday night, it was the Columbus River Dragons who would come away victorious.
The River Dragons broke through first after goaltender Chris Paulin was knocked out the crease by defenseman Dalton Young leading forward Jay Croop to backhand a shot into an empty net.
Columbus would strike once more about three minutes later after Paulin played a puck behind his net and tried to dump it around the end boards. The puck would deflect off David Powlowski and find Chad Herron in the slot. There he would catch Paulin out of position giving Columbus a 2-0 lead.
Before the first period ended, it was Marysville native Dalton Young who would strike for Port Huron when he ripped a wrist shot from the point to beat Ryland Pashovitz glove side to bring the score to within one. It was Young’s first professional goal and his first goal since 2013 when he was a member of the Saginaw Spirit.
In the second period, the Prowlers would tie the game on the power play after Matt Graham slid the puck across the slot only to deflected off the skate of Justin Portillo past Pashovitz.
The Prowlers would then take the lead after some nifty passing that started when Dalton Jay found Johnathan Juliano on a three-on-one. Juliano would make a drop pass back to Zach Zulkancyz who fired the puck home giving the Prowlers a 3-2 lead.
That lead would only last three minutes because Zulkancyz would be called for a tripping penalty and MJ Graham would tie up the game for Columbus.
Soon after Justin Portillo would be called for a delay of game and Columbus would go back to the power play. After a glove save by Paulin, Croop would pick up a rebound in the slot and shoot it past an off balanced Paulin to put the River Dragons up for good 4-3.
The River Dragons improve to a record of 2-1-1-1 and the Prowlers drop to 0-3-2-0 on the season.
by Jeremy Skiba
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