Winston-Salem, NC – Something inspired the Carolina Thunderbirds tonight. Maybe it was the new goal lights, or the new horn or all the mascots running around having a blast to help celebrate Winston and Salem’s birthday, whatever it was it worked as Carolina defeated Watertown 9-0 on Friday night.
The goal scoring started about midway through the first period and came in a quick one-two punch as Jiri Pargac potted home a juicy rebound given up by Wolves netminder Christopher Marsillo to make it 1-0. A little more than two minutes later on the power play Jan Salak tipped home a Karel Drahorad shot to double Carolina’s lead.
The scoring wasn’t done in the first as Petr Panacek would rip the top netting on a cross pass from Chase Fallis on the rush. Carolina led 3-0 after 20 and were dominating on the shot counter 22-7.
That domination would roll over into the second period when four more Thunderbirds goals would go in. Josh Pietrantonio and Michael Bunn each had a goal 37 seconds apart from one another to make it 5-0 before you could catch your breath from the excitement of the first period.
Later on in the period Karel Drahorad scored a goal on a 2-on-1 with fellow defenseman Mike Baker coming out of the box and that made it 6-0. But Carolina wasn’t done there in the second as Dominik Fejt slapped one past the pads of Marsillo and the extra point was tacked on to make it 7-0 heading to the third period.
There was a fair bit of controversy in the second period as Jiri Pargac of the Thunderbirds was ejected for a retaliatory hit to the head on Bryan Parsons after the two had developed a history throughout the game with many different skirmishes, the most notable of which included Parsons putting his stick at Pargac’s throat during a faceoff. Carolina killed off the major penalty with relative ease. Carolina’s goalie Christian Pavlas was forced into a few tough saves to keep the scoreline clean for the Carolina defense.
By the third period Carolina was rolling with all the momentum. Another goal from Karel Drahorad made it 8-0, this one of the shorthanded variety after Dominik Fejt took a major elbowing penalty that was observed by a linesman. Another Carolina penalty kill was successful and then for good measure at the end of the game Jan Salak slammed home a two-footer to give the game its final scoreline of 9-0.
Christian Pavlas stopped all 26 shots he faced tonight for his fourth shutout of the year to take sole possession of the lead in that category. Chris Marsillo stopped 41 of 50 shots he faced in the loss, he was briefly spelled in the second period by Kent Nusbaum.
The same two team go at it again Saturday night with a 6:05 puck drop at the Fairgrounds Annex
Three Stars of the Game
Christian Pavlas
Chase Fallis
Dominik Fejt
