Carolina Drops Series Finale to Watertown, 5-2

Watertown, NY – The Carolina Thunderbirds 15-game win streak came to an end on Sunday evening against the Watertown Wolves falling 5-2 at the Watertown Arena.

After a scoreless first 20 minutes, Watertown (24-15-2) broke the deadlock on Davide Gaeta’s third goal of the weekend just 3:09 into the 2nd period. Carolina (32-8-3) answered less than a minute later on the power play. Gus Ford knocked home his first goal of the night beating Wolves netminder Breandan Colgan over the glove tying the game at one. Ford would beat Colgan again at the 9:41 mark of the frame for his 350th point in the FPHL and pushing Carolina ahead, 2-1.

Following Ford’s goal, Watertown got a power play goal of their own 45 seconds later tying the game at two, and with 63 seconds remaining in the 2nd period, Marc Bottero banked a pass to himself and beat Carolina netminder Mario Cavaliere giving Watertown the lead for good, 3-2.

In the final 20 minutes, despite 20 shots for the Thunderbirds, the Wolves got a short-handed goal from Andrew Whalen and an empty netter with 1:35 left in regulation to snap Carolina’s 15-game win streak with a 5-2 victory.

The Thunderbirds now return home to Winston-Salem to host division rival Columbus next weekend starting on Friday evening.  Puck drop is set for 7:30 p.m. from the Fairgrounds Arena.