Thunderbirds Win FHL record 45th Game This Season

Winston-Salem, NC - The Carolina Thunderbirds put up a dominating final two periods of play to take the first game of their weekend series with the Elmira Enforcers 6-1. This game was also Carolina's 45th win (44 regulation, 1 OT) which is an FHL record.

Carolina's power play got them on the board first with Chase Fallis slapping home a rebound about five minutes in to the game. For the Thunderbirds it was exciting to get on the power play after going a combined 0-16 the last three games against the Enforcers.

Two minutes later however, the Enforcers would tie the game up with a power play of their own. Anton Lennartsson potted a juicy rebound on a one timer from the left circle to knot the game at one.

Before the break though Carolina would re-take the lead through Petr Panacek who scored after a great one-touch pass by Croop set up the right hander's quick snapshot that beat Nick Niedert five-hole.

The second period was a very grindy period with Carolina continuing to dictate play but with nothing to show for it. Then on a 2-on-2 Michael Bunn came in to the zone right wing and every Elmira eye was on the man on a 5-game goal streak. Instead of shooting Bunn fired a phenomenal backdoor pass to Peter Cicmanec in stride who buried it to make the game 3-1.

The third period was more of the same with Carolina continuing to assert their will and this time they would not be denied scoring in bunches in the third period. First it was Chase Fallis on a backhand shot that beat Niedert low.

Midway though the period Taylor Love would score from an acute angle also going low on Niedert to make it 5-1.

And finally as the game was winding down with less than two minutes to go, Josh Pietrantonio lasered one to the top right corner past Niedert's glove to give the game its final score of 6-1.

Both teams will carry over some words though and harsh feelings though, as the horn sounded a gathering of players came about in the neutral zone. As the temperature began to cool down, teams eventually left the ice ready to get at each other tomorrow night.

Christian Pavlas took home the win on this record breaking night with 18 saves on 19 shots. Nick Niedert suffered the loss, he stopped 43 of 49 shots.

The same two teams go at it one final time this regular season with a 6:05 puck drop at the Annex. Less than 500 tickets remain for Saturday night which is Cancer Awareness Night brought to you by Mac And Nellie's with specialty jerseys available for auction at LiveSource.

Three Stars of the Game

Chase Fallis
Petr Panacek
Brad Nolan

⚡-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 building on the success from last year with a regular season championship in 2018-19 and are looking forward to their second consecutive trip to the playoffs. The Thunderbirds have set an FHL record again at the gate, breaking their own attendance record with over 70,000 fans through the doors this season.