Thunderbirds travel to Florence for three-game series against IceCats

FLORENCE, S.C. – The Twin City Thunderbirds travel to the Florence Center for a three-game series against the Pee Dee IceCats this weekend. Tonight, and tomorrow night’s game will begin at 7:15pm ET, and Sunday’s matchup is scheduled to start at 3:15pm ET.


Twin City (15-17-1) enters tonight’s road game against Pee Dee on a three-game winning streak. The Thunderbirds’ current winning streak is the second time this season the team has posted three consecutive wins. Twin City previously won three straight games from December 13th, 2025, to December 20th, 2025. The Thunderbirds have won four of the last five games following the team’s most recent performance, a two-game weekend sweep of the league-leading Binghamton Black Bears on the road in the final days of January. Twin City was idle last weekend after posting a 5-4 overtime win on Friday, January 30th and a 7-5 win on Saturday, January 31st over Binghamton. Jacob Schnapp (2), Josh Labelle (2), Chris Mott (2), Zach White (2), Roman Kraemer, Jan Salak, Connor Craig, and Jon Buttitta scored goals for Twin City during the weekend series against Binghamton. Boris Babik backstopped the Thunderbirds to victory each night, and improved to 12-12-0-1 in net this season for Twin City. Babik has made a career-high 877 saves this year, and currently boasts one of the highest Save Percentages (SV%) in the FPHL this season, .914%. The Thunderbirds are 27/148 (18.2%) on the powerplay and 92/131 (70.2%) on the penalty kill entering this weekend’s three-game road series against the IceCats. Twin City is currently 6-2-0 in head-to-head games played against Pee Dee this season. There are five games remaining in this year’s thirteen-game season series between the two opponents. Scoring leaders for the Thunderbirds entering tonight’s matchup include Gus Ford (21), Zach White (20), Roman Kraemer (12), and Jan Salak (12).


Pee Dee (13-18-3) defends home ice tonight as the 5th place team in the FPHL's Continental Division standings. The IceCats dropped a road game last weekend at the Columbus Civic Center to the Columbus River Dragons by a score of 6-3. Dominiks Marcinkevics, Patriks Marcinkevics, and Dzianis Zaichyk each recorded goals for the IceCats during the loss. Parker Rutherford dropped the game in net for Pee Dee in an 18-save-on-24-shot performance. Rutherford dropped to 3-2-0 on the 2025-2026 season in the loss. Pee Dee previously posted wins over Twin City on October 17th, 2025, and November 22nd, 2025. The IceCats have dropped four consecutive games against the Thunderbirds entering this weekend’s three-game series. Pee Dee is 34/158 (21.5%) on the powerplay and 139/174 (79.9%) on the penalty kill this season. Scoring leaders for the IceCats include Alexander Legkov (24), Patriks Marcinkevics (24), and Trevor Lord (20).


Twin City’s next home games will be played back-to-back against the Watertown Wolves on Friday, February 27th and Saturday, February 28th. Puck drop for Friday’s game is set for 7:35pm ET, and Saturday’s matchup will begin at 6:05pm ET.


Tonight’s game is set to begin at 7:15pm ET, and will be streamed live on YouTube, Facebook, and WTOB Radio. Tickets to Thunderbirds home games may be purchased online by skating to WSFairgrounds.com, Ticketmaster.com, or by calling the Winston-Salem Fairgrounds Arena Box Office at (336) 727-2236. The Twin City Thunderbirds are proud members of the Federal Prospects Hockey League (FPHL). #FlockTogether