4 GOAL SECOND PERIOD GVIES CAROLINA THEIR 24TH STRAIGHT WIN

Winston-Salem, NC – The Carolina Thunderbirds rode a wave of energy from their sold out crowd and scored four 2nd period goals en route to a 4-2 win over Watertown Saturday night.

There were no goals to speak of in the first period, but Jared Rutledge made a few five-star saves to keep the game scoreless. Carolina netminder Henry Dill also denied a few good scoring chances from the Wolves to keep the stalemate in place for the first intermission.

Facing a man disadvantage to start the second period, Carolina was able to strike first when Josh Pietrantonio out raced Kyle Powell to a loose puck and the Thunderbirds captain broke in with a deke out-waiting Rutledge and sliding it into the net.

The Thunderbirds would continue their barrage with the next three goals coming in a four minute span midway through the second.

First, Jiri Pargac was sprung on a breakaway by a Jan Salak pass and buried it top left corner past Rutledge. 13 seconds late Viktor Grebennikov tallied his fourth of the year on a rebound goal originally shot by Petr Panacek. Then to cap it all off Jay Kenney fired a slap shot past Rutledge after consecutive drop passes by Carolina to set up the goal.

Watertown would respond in the second period though, on a major power play Justin Portillo scored his sixth of the year after Henry Dill gave up a juicy rebound with traffic in front of him.

The third period was intense, it was emotional and it surprisingly only saw one goal scored and it was Kyle Powell scoring on a power play as well to give the game its final scoreline.

Carolina’s Henry Dill picked up his 8th win of the year stopping 21 of 23 shots. Jared Rutledge took the loss stopping 55 of 59 shots.