Thunderbirds comeback falls short in 7-6 road loss to Rock Lobsters

ATHENS, GA. – The Twin City Thunderbirds nearly erased a five-goal deficit midway through Sunday’s road battle against the Athens Rock Lobsters, but fell by a final score of 7-6. Kayson Gallant shined in a four-goal performance for Twin City. Nate Keeley, and Dominic Dumas also netted goals for the Thunderbirds in the loss.

Jesse Lowell opened the scoring with a goal for Athens less than four minutes into Sunday’s opening period. Garrett Milan and Jonathan Bartuccio-Pereria each collected an assist on the play. Dustin Perillat scored an even-strength goal at 10:11 of the 1^st period to give the Rock Lobsters a 2-0 lead in the battle. Jesse Lowell netted his second goal of the period at 11:28. Jonathan Bartuccio-Pereria and Carter Shinkaruk each recorded an assist on the goal. Thunderbirds’ goaltender Chad Purdy was replaced by Boris Babik following Athen’s third scoring play of the 1^st period. The final goal of Sunday’s opening period was scored by Kayson Gallant with less than five minutes to play. Gallant’s goal was netted even strength, and was assisted by Cade Hanley and Jon Buttitta. Twin City was outshot by a 20-8 margin during the 1^st period, and trailed by a 3-1 score entering Sunday’s 2^nd period.

Athens scored three consecutive goals for the second time during Sunday’s matchup to take a five-goal lead during the middle period. John Kaljian netted an even-strength goal at 5:16 of the period to give the Rock Lobsters a 4-1 lead. Filip Virgili and Jonathan Bartuccio-Pereira each collected an assist on the goal. Gus Ford netted a goal at 9:31 of the period to give Athens a four-goal lead in the battle. Ford’s goal was assisted by Jesse Lowell and Jonathan Bartuccio-Pereria. Gleb Bandurkin netted an even strength goal at 10:24 of the middle period. Dustin Perillat and Joey Colatarci each recorded an assist on the scoring play. The final goal of Sunday’s 2^nd period was netted by Kayson Gallant. Gallant’s goal was his second of the contest and was scored at 12:16 of the period. Zach White and Roman Kraemer each notched an assist on the scoring play. Twin City was outshot by a 14-13 margin during the 2^nd period, and entered Sunday’s final period down by four goals.

Nate Keeley opened the scoring during Sunday’s 3^rd period with an even-strength scoring play less than six minutes into the period. The goal was assisted by Jan Salak and Jon Buttitta. Dominic Dumas scored a goal at 9:04 of the period to bring Twin City to within one goal of Athens’ lead. Dumas’ goal was assisted by Jon Buttitta and Chris Mott. Kayson Gallant recorded a hat trick at 10:01 of Sunday’s 3^rd period. Gallant’s third goal of the contest was assisted by Zach White and Roman Kraemer. John Kaljian netted a goal for the Rock Lobsters at 13:16 of the 3^rd period to put Athens ahead 7-5. The scoring play was assisted by Joe Mack and Filip Virgili. The final goal of Sunday’s contest was netted by Kayson Gallant with less than two minutes to play. Gallant’s scoring play at 18:14 of the 3^rd period was his fourth of the contest. Connor Craig and Nate Keeley each collected an assist on the scoring play. Gallant was named the 1^st Star of the Game for his four-goal performance. Twin City outshot Athens 16-9 during the 3^rd period, but was outshot by an overall margin of 43-37 during the contest. The Thunderbirds dropped to 20-26-1 on the 2025-2026 season in the loss.

Boris Babik recorded the loss in goal for Twin City in a 25-save-on-29-shot performance. Babik entered the game for Twin City following Athen’s third scoring play of the 1^st period. Chad Purdy made 11 saves on 14 shots in just over eleven minutes of game time during Sunday’s battle. Matt Sayles posted the win in goal for the Rock Lobsters in a 31-save-on-37-shot performance.