Carolina Commands Sea Wolves, 7-2

Carolina came out strong as expected from the division leaders as Gus Ford took a between the legs pass from Roman Kraemer and found space behind Richie Parent to make it 1-0 just 2:55 into the first period. The Thunderbirds continued the attack as John Buttitta followed suit at 10:53 of the period to give Carolina the 2-0 advantage. Mississippi benefitted from a power play on an interference call and after a Sam Turner shot was blocked Matt Stoia took the rebound and blasted it towards Boris Babik beating him to bring the Sea Wolves back to within one goal, 2-1. Despite gaining some momentum Ford sprinted out of his own zone with 1:10 left to go in the period and was able to deke out Parent for a 3-1 lead after 20 minutes.

The Thunderbirds got themselves a chance on the power play and Zach White took advantage of it throwing it at Parent and catching a bounce to end up in the back of the net for a 4-1 lead just 2:37 into the period. Carolina kept attacking an despite failing to convert on two subsequent power plays Kraemer and Dmitri Selyutin both found ways to score within 15 seconds of a power play ending giving the Thunderbirds a 6-1 advantage after two periods of play.

Just fifteen seconds into the third period the Sea Wolves came out with a spark as a well designed play saw Sam Turner feed Noah Hippolyte-Smith who made the cross crease pass to Curtis Hansen for their second goal of the game. 1:16 later Selyutin netted his second of the game for Carolina to assure victory killing any momentum for Mississippi 7-2.

Parent stopped 37 of 44 in the loss.

The Sea Wolves return to the Mississippi Coast Coliseum tomorrow night for a 6:05pm start in the series finale with the Thunderbirds.