Thunderbirds Blank Venom in Pestuka's 400th Game, 5-0
January 25, 2025 - Federal Prospects Hockey League (FPHL)
Carolina Thunderbirds News Release
Winston-Salem, NC - On the night that Jiri Pestuka became the fifth player in FPHL history to play in 400 regular season games, he tallied two assists while Mario Cavaliere stopped all 26 shots he saw as the Carolina Thunderbirds shutout HC Venom, 5-0, on Saturday evening at the Fairgrounds Arena in front of 3,153 fans.
Carolina (20-7-3) again struck first in the 1st period. Off a broken play from a faceoff, Zach White spun home his sixth goal of the season putting the Thunderbirds ahead, 1-0, just 5:14 into the game. Just over six minutes later on the power play, Jan Salak deflected home a shot from the point by Jiri Pestuka doubling Carolina's advantage, 2-0.
After scoring two goals in the 1st period for the third straight game, the Thunderbirds added a third in the 2nd. Vladislav Pavlov, who was traded to Carolina from Monroe last Monday, finished off a run and tapped home a rebound at the back post, pushing the lead to three. Thunderbirds netminder Mario Cavaliere had a quiet 2nd period only seeing nine shots from HC Venom (7-15-2) and took a shutout into the final 20 minutes.
In the 3rd, Danyk Drouin wired home his fifth of the year past the blocker of Makar Sokolov giving Carolina a 4-0 lead 7:47 into the 3rd period and Roman Kraemer added another on the power play with 3:29 left as the Thunderbirds picked up their sixth shutout of the year, 5-0.
Pestuka tonight joined Joe Pace Jr., Dustin Henning, Matt Graham and Ahmed Mahfouz as the only players to play in 400 regular season FPHL games.
Carolina and HC Venom meet for the final time on Sunday afternoon with the Thunderbirds going for the sweep of the Venom. Puck drop is slated for 2:05 p.m. from the Fairgrounds Arena.
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