Bachor scores in the knick of time to down Delaware

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.- The Carolina Thunderbirds, proud members of the Federal Prospects Hockey League, outlasted the Delaware Thunder 3-2 on Friday night at the Annex.

“We’re not getting better,” said head coach Andre Niec, “there are guys who don’t understand that they’ve got to earn their spots and we’ve got guys coming in, they will learn.”

Jan Salak opened the scoring with his 15^th goal of the season, with 7:33 to go in the first period. Salak is now in sole possession of second-place on the team in total points.

Charlie Pens, Jr. notched his second goal of the season on a knuckling wrist shot that beat Patrik Polivka on his blocker side, tying the game at one four minutes later. Pens’ goal would spark a flurry of offense that saw three goals in the following 1:59.

Anton Kalinin buried his 12^th of the year on a two-on-one to give Delaware a brief lead with 2:23 to go in the first period.

However, Joe Cangelosi beat the buzzer, scoring with just 39 seconds to go in the opening frame to tie things up at two.

“Joe played well,” said Niec, “he can play even better I think, but he played well.”

Carolina would hit two goalposts over the following two periods and Aaron Taylor stood tall making 55 saves. Delaware rang one off the post late in the second period, but neither team was able to score.

After calling timeout, Niec drew up a play for defenseman Stan Bachor who beat Taylor on a wrist-shot from the blue line with just six seconds to go in the game.

“It felt great to get that goal,” said Bachor, “anyone could have done it because I was just trying to put the shot on net, but it went in and we won.”

The Thunderbirds improve to 22-3-1-1 with 69 standings points on the season and Delaware falls to 8-18-0-0, holding at 24 points.

Carolina will regroup and play Delaware again tomorrow at 6:05 p.m. on Star Wars night in Winston-Salem. Only 300 tickets remain, and they are going fast.

3 Stars

3- Daniel Martin

2- Everett Thompson

1- Stanislav Bachor