WILDCARD PLAYOFF EDITION
BATON ROUGE ZYDECO at BLUE RIDGE BOBCATS
Bobcats Down Zydeco 5-2 For First Ever Playoff Win, Advance to Continental Quarterfinals
by Brett Wiseman
Wytheville, VA - The Blue Ridge Bobcats picked up their first-ever postseason win in their playoff debut, a 5-2 triumph over the Baton Rouge Zydeco in the Continental Division Wild Card Play-In Game before a crowd of nearly 1,500 at Hitachi Energy Arena.
The Bobcats struck first 3:32 in, when Mike Mercurio plucked a rebound from under the pad of Sammy Bernard and stuffed it into the net for the first postseason goal in Bobcats history.
Blue Ridge held the Zydeco shotless for the first 6 minutes of the contest, but Baton Rouge began to surge after the halfway mark of the opening frame. Jake Cox picked the pocket of a Bobcat behind the net and quickly wrapped the puck in short side past Connor Green to tie the game exactly 10:30 into the first period.
The Zydeco controlled the pace for the remainder of the first and entirety of the second, with Jake Cox netting the only marker of the middle frame less than 5 minutes into it.
The Bobcats answered with a resounding response in the third to save their season and schedule a quarterfinal date with the archrival Carolina Thunderbirds. Denis Radchenko began the third period onslaught and tied the game at 2 when he one timed a shot home just over 8 and a half minutes into the third. Less than three minutes later, Daniel Klinecky blasted home a one-timer on the power play for what served as the game-winning goal and sent the crowd in Roar County into a frenzy.
Carson Andreoli and Danny Martin ensured the lead would hold, each tacking on an empty net goal to seal the deal. Green earned third star in net, making 26 saves on 28 shots faced. Denis Radchenko's multi-point night netted him second star, and Mercurio's two goal effort granted him first star.
The Bobcats will now host the Carolina Thunderbirds in the Continental Division Quarterfinals, a best-of-three series to begin Friday night at Hitachi Energy Arena.
MOTOR CITY ROCKERS at WATERTOWN WOLVES
Wolves Win 4-2Host Black Bears on Friday by Jeff Barrett
Watertown, NY - The 2025 FPHL playoffs began tonight in the Watertown Municipal Arena with the 4th place Watertown Wolves hosting the 5th place Motor City Rockers in a one game wild card matchup, with the winner advancing to the first round to battle the Binghamton Black Bears on Friday.
The Wolves and Rockers met seven times in the regular season, with the Wolves winning five of those contests.
Domenic Della Civita got the scoring started for the Wolves at the 11:06 mark on a blast from just inside the blue line, beating the Rockers starter Ricardo Gonzalez, assisted by Junior Harris and Trevor Neumann. The Wolves would hold the 1-0 lead at the break, while outshooting the Rockers 14-6.
At just 1:28 into the second Steven Klinck padded the Watertown lead with a shot from below the goal line that hit Gonzalez in the back and dropped in the goal. The assist on the goal belonged to Dustin Henning, making the score 2-0.
The Rockers Brendan Ronan cut the lead in half as he was able to redirect a pass at the 5:02 mark, beating the Wolves Breandan Colgan. Tristen Wells and Mathias Tellstrom were credited with the helpers on the goal.
At 16:27 of the period, Watertown regained the 2 goal advantage on a Junior Harris goal, making the score 3-1, with assists going to Kyle Powell and Chase DiBari.
The Wolves again outshot the Rockers, this time 16-7 and took the 3-1 lead to the room after 40 minutes of play.
At 5:54 of the third. TJ Sneath gave the Rockers some life as he intercepted a Wolves clear and lifted one to the top of the goal, assisted by Eli Rivers and Nick Gullo, making it 3-2 in favor of Watertown.
Trevor Grasby extended the Watertown lead to 4-2 at 11:03 assisted by Junior Harris and Davide Gaeta to close out the scoring, and send Watertown into the FPHL Empire Division playoffs.
The Wolves will now host the Binghamton Black Bears on Friday evening at 7:30. Game two will be on Saturday in Binghamton with game 3 if necessary scheduled for Monday. | 
FPHL 
