Big Third Propels ‘Birds (3/20)

WINSTON-SALEM, NC - On the road for a 3-in-3, the Breakers looked to play spoiler in their first ever meeting with the Twin City Thunderbirds. After sticking with them for 40 minutes, a 6-goal 3rd period delivered the ‘Birds a much needed victory to keep their playoff hopes alive by a final of 9-2.

The Thunderbirds came out hot in period 1, immediately tilting the ice in their favor and getting tons of pressure on Anton Borodkin. The scoring opened at 2:31 with Nate Keeley cleaning up a rebound off a blocked shot to make it 1-0 Thunderbirds. Borodkin made a few sensational saves afterwards, but the game felt like a Thunderbirds powerplay through the first half. At 7:50, Jiri Pestuka walked down broadway and fired a bullet under the glove of Borodkin to make it 2-0. On their heels, the Breakers couldn’t muster many good opportunities on Boris Babik. Meanwhile, Babik’s offense continued to make him more comfortable in a must win game. At 14:07, Jon Buttita took a beautiful backhand pass from Jan Salak in the slot and beat Borodkin down low to open up a 3-0 margin. Borodkin was swapped for Rahul Sharma after the 3rd goal. The Breakers kept Twin CIty in check for the final 6 minutes, but still couldn’t score heading to the room down 3 and being outshot 19-12. 

The 2nd period had a lethargic feel for the first 10 minutes, with both teams playing a back and forth game with minimal shots. Into the backhalf, at 12:35 a great individual effort by Hugo Koch hard around the goal set up Chiwetin Blacksmith on the doorstep for a quick tally to extend his scoring streak to 5 straight games and make it 3-1. Physicality began to ramp up for both sides, and the Thunderbirds struggled to move the puck at will like they could in the 1st. With just 15 seconds remaining, after taking a huge hit from Jacob Schnapp, Al Rotiroti crashed the net and fired the pill past Babik to pull Biloxi to within 1 at 3-2. Twin City outshot Biloxi 3-2 in the middle chapter, but had plenty of work to do to close out a must win game at home. 

Steve Harrison must’ve had some serious adjustments made in the locker room ahead of period 3, because Twin City came out with something to prove in the final frame. Just 20 seconds after the puck was dropped, Kayson Gallant pounded a rebound home off a pass off the pad by Roman Kraemer to make it 4-2. At 3:45, Zach White checked in on the scoresheet with a snipe over the shoulder of Sharma to make it 5-2. Then at 7:33, Connor Craig fired the puck past Sharma down low to make it 6-2. 28 seconds later, lightning struck twice with Connor Craig ripping a shot off the crossbar and in to extend the lead to 5. As if that weren’t enough, at 8:50 Chris Mott got himself going with a goal from in between the circles to make it 8-2. The 6 goal 3rd period was concluded with Jon Buttita burying his 2nd of the night off a great 1-on-1 move at 12:40 to cement the scoring at 9-2. Twin City outshot Biloxi 25-7 in the final frame and 58-27 in the game.

The Thunderbirds snap their 4 game slide and improve to 21-26-1, as the Breakers drop their 4th straight and fall to 7-39-1. The two teams will continue their 3-in-3 tomorrow night at 5:05 CST inside the Fairgrounds Arena.