Thunderbirds Extend Win Streak To Seven With 4-1 Boxing Day Win

Mentor, OH - The Carolina Thunderbirds looked to exact some revenge on the only team in the FHL to have a winning record against them so far this season and they succeeded on Wednesday night to the tune of a 4-1 win at the Mentor Civic Ice Arena.

Carolina captain Josh Pietrantonio got the scoring started off when a save from Derek Moser was rebounded right into his shin pads and into the net 7:36 into the first period. Mentor had claims of a kicked puck but the referee crew got together to discuss what they saw and ruled that the goal was good.

Later in the first with about six minutes left in the period Michael Bunn fired a seeing eye wrist shot that found its way through everybody including Moser and Carolina had a 2-0 lead at the first break.

Despite being down, Mentor would show no signs of quit continuing to skate hard and throw the body against Carolina. They were rewarded for their efforts when Alex Morrow went in on a 2-on-1 and fed a pass across to Matt Kadolph who slipped the netminder Christian Pavlas and scored to make it a one goal game mid way through the second.

While the scoring would end at that point in the second period the talking points would not as Ivan Vilcauskas was ejected from the game with a five minute major and game misconduct for slashing the Thunderbirds' Ryan Jasinsky in the face. The resulting penalties would give Carolina a three minute major power play with most of it coming on fresh ice to begin the third period.

The Thunderbirds took advantage of the fresh ice and over two minutes of major power play time when Karel Drahorad blasted one from the center point and beat Moser to his left off the post and in. For Drahorad it was his seventh goal of the year and his first in nine games, the last goal he scored ironically enough came in the Mentor Civic Ice Arena.

Chase Fallis would add an insurance tally by deflecting a puck past Moser on a different power play. The shot was fed to him by Beau Walker who picked up a helper from the point. Fallis now has four goals in his last two games.

Christian Pavlas picked up his eighth consecutive win stopping 19 of 20 shots in this game. Derek Moser took the loss stopping 36 of 40 shots he faced.

Carolina now hits the road up to Port Huron where they will visit the Prowlers in McMorran Arena for the first time this season. It's the second of a string of four consecutive game days for Carolina and Port Huron.

Three Stars of the Game

Christian Pavlas
Jiri Pargac
Matt Kadolph (MIB)

⚡-THUNDERBIRDS-⚡

The Carolina Thunderbirds are proud members of the Federal Hockey League, now in its ninth season. The Thunderbirds are in their second season of play looking to build on the success of their inaugural season where the team posted an 87-point season with a record of 25-5-2-24 (W-OTW-OTL-L). The Thunderbirds also set an FHL record with over 66,000 fans through the doors in their first season. Season and group tickets are on sale now by calling 336-774-GOAL (4625).