Carolina Cooks Columbus For Weekend Sweep

WINSTON-SALEM, NC-

The message was the same from Friday to Saturday, and the Thunderbirds took it to heart. Carolina backed up a statement win with another dominating victory over the league-best Columbus River Dragons.

The Thunderbirds again used strong goaltending, smothering defense and a relentless offensive attack to post a 7-2 victory and finish off a weekend sweep of the division leaders.

The 7-2 win totaled up for a weekend in which the Thunderbirds outscored the River Dragons 15-4, torching league-best goaltender Breandan Colgan all weekend long.

Boris Babik kept up Carolina's strong goaltending.The game's first star stopped 31 of 33 shots faced.

Jiri Pestuka and Josh Koepplinger also stayed hot. Koepplinger opened the scoring 15 minutes into the opening frame. Pestuka added back to back goals in the second period, each en route to earning third and second star honors of the game respectively.

Jacob Schnapp sniped a goal home three minutes after Koepplinger's marker, and in the third Lucas Rowe and Blake Peavey sent a pair of dagger goals home to seal the deal.

The Thunderbirds now head south to Columbus for two more games against the arch-rival River Dragons next weekend.