Thunderbirds Win Big Over Ice Breakers Friday Night

Winston-Salem, NC - The Carolina Thunderbirds and Mentor Ice Breakers played their usual high intensity game and thanks to a spree of goals in the second the Thunderbirds came out on top 7-2.

It took a while for the scoring to open but once Carolina got the offense going only the intermission horn would stop them. First, Petr Panacek fired a wrist shot that beat John Sellie-Henson to the glove hand. That goal went in with 1:56 left in the first. Then, Michael Bunn scored on a great individual effort cutting to the slot and firing lower right corner past Sellie-Henson for a 2-0 lead with 38 seconds left in the frame. 

The second period started with the same momentum the first ended with. Carolina made it a three-goal game thanks to Peter Cicmanec potting one in off the rebound given up by Sellie-Henson.

10 seconds later though it would be Mentor breaking through with a good top corner shot from Mentor's Matthew Kadolph from the right point.

Carolina would respond often with two goals 37 seconds apart. The first from Jay Croop on a scrum that involved upwards of four or five bodies. And then after a discussion with the goal judge Peter Cicmanec got his second of the night. Initially ruled no goal but a goal light went on the referee conferred with the goal judge and awarded the goal after discussion of what was seen.

The scoring wasn't over there though. Late in the second period on a replay Panacek went in on a breakaway and pulled a between the legs backhand-forehand deke and roofed past Sellie-Henson's shoulder that would ultimately end his night.

Also in that second period, Frankie McClendon had to leave for about three minutes for an upper body injury that he shook off by the beginning of the third period.

With the score out of hand the game would start to get chippy with different big hits and fights cropping up all over the period. On the scoring front Jay Croop got his second of the game and Mentor's Alexander Morrow scored with 50 seconds left to give the game its final score.

Frankie McClendon picked up the win stopping 33 of 35 shots. Christian Pavlas had 4 saves on 4 shots also in this game. John Sellie-Henson got the loss he stopped 19 of 25 shots before being replaced by Derek Moser who stopped 10 of 11 shots he faced.

Carolina and Mentor finish their season series tomorrow night at the Fairgrounds Annex on the Thunderbirds St. Patrick's Night brought to you be Cricket Wireless. Puck drop is at 6:05 with a 5:40 pregame show.

Three Stars of the Game

Petr Panacek
Frankie McClendon
Peter Cicmanec