The Mississippi Seawolves started their final weekend at home with two games against the Carolina Thunderbirds. The Thunderbirds are 3rd in the league and 2nd in the Continental Divison, while the Seawolves are 7th in the league and 4th in the same division.
First blood was drawn by the Thunderbirds at 4:30 in the first period (scored by #24 Jiri Pestuka, assisted by #18 Roman Kraemer and #16 Jan Salak). The Seawolves answered at 5:27 when #10 Phillip Wong found the back of #70 Mario Cavaliere’s net, with assitance by #4 Matt Stoia and #23 Jackson Bond. The Seawolves took a bench minor penalty for too many men on the ice at 18:55, and #16 Jan Salak took advantage of the extra man to over power #33 Joseph Sheppard (assists from #10 Kalib Ford and #18 Roman Kraemer. This ended the first period with the Thunderbirds leading the Seawolves 2-1.
It took 3 minutes into the 2nd period for the Thunderbirds to again find the back of the net with a score by #21 Nate Keeley (assited by #4 Joseph Kennedy). In the next seven minutes, #33 Joseph Sheppard of the Seawolves faced 7 shots before letting one slip past at the 10:00 mark (scored by #6 Jacob Schnapp, assisted by #21 Nate Keeley and #15 Chris Ciolek). At 10:49 the puck found the back of the Seawolves’ net and Thunderbirds’ #24 Jiri Pestuka got his second goal of the night (assisted by #16 Kan Salak and #18 Roman Kraemer). At 13:39 in the second period, tempers flared when Thunderbirds’ #70 Mario Cavaliere was called for tripping. Seawolves’ #10 Philip Wong went toe to toe with Thunderbirds’ #11 James Farmer-Valente and both were called for Fighting (major). The end of the second period saw the Thunderbirds’ lead extend to 5-1.
The 3rd period saw the Seawolves come out with a fighting spirit, and they continued to pepper #70 Mario Cavaliere with shots until #29 Justin Portillo was able to sink one at 4:05. At 4:59 #33 Joseph Sheppard was taken out of the game and replaced by #30 Austyn Melin. #10 Kalib Ford got called for a slash at 5:12, which resulted in a Power Play goal by #29 Justin Portillo, his second for the night, with assits from #4 Matt Stoia and #10 Philip Wong. In what turned out to be a funny moment of the night, at 10:33, #18 on the Thunderbirds, Roman Kraemer, was called for a slashing penalty. However, the Seawolves received a penalty for #22 Dmitry Kuznetsov’s embellishment. The final goal of the night was then scored by the Thunderbirds (#18 Roman Kraemer, assisted by #16 Jan Salak), making the final score Thunderbirds 6 and Seawolves 3. The three stars of the game were Justin Portillo (2 goals, 0 assists, 2 points), Roman Kraemer (1 goal, 3 assists, 4 points), and Jan Salak (1 goal, 3 assists, 4 points).
Written by Sarah Carman
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