Hat Tricks Hand Thunderbirds Second Straight Defeat

DANBURY, CT

Another night, another hot goaltender in the way of a bunch of hungry Thunderbirds. Again, Carolina outshot their opponent, and again a few bounces that didn't go the Thunderbirds way ended up being the difference in a 5-3 defeat in Danbury.

The Hat Tricks opened the scoring with a fluky short side goal from Michael Marchesan midway through the first. Four minutes later, Dimitry Kuznetsov deflected a wrist shot from the point with his back turned to the goal and in on an amazing display of hand-eye coordination to double the lead.

Carolina's Czech Republican trio got to work moments later, when Petr Panacek found Jiri Pestuka who beat Brian Wilson up high with a wrist shot aided by a perfectly executed screen in front from Jan Salak.

Despite the Thunderbirds continued attacks, Wilson and his teammates had answers. Two more Hat Trick goals in the second period made the deficit for Carolina simply too much to overcome at 5-1.

Third period goals from Josh Koepplinger and Daniel Martin proved there was no quit from the Thunderbirds, who simply ran out of time after building pressure most of the third. 

Carolina will return home and look to bounce back when they host the Port Huron Prowlers next weekend. Tickets are available for both Friday and Saturday night's games at Carolinathunderbirds.com and the Winston-Salem Fairgrounds Annex Box Office.