FPHL Elmira Enforcers

Thunderbirds Take Game One of FHL Best Matchup, 4-1

Published on March 8, 2019 under Federal Prospects Hockey League (FPHL)
Elmira Enforcers News Release


The Enforcers and the Thunderbirds came together to reignite a rivalry that could have playoff foreshadowing written all over it. The Enforcers have only claimed one victory in the previous nine attempts, but that win came in the last meeting. Tonight, was set to kick off a long three game Friday, Saturday, Sunday set that both teams wanted to claim victory in.

The first period was a hefty workload for Troy Passingham as he faced 24 shots from the number one team in the league. Passingham was clearly up for the task allowing only one goal to Michael Bunn in the first period. The bigger story for the Enforcers was the lack of any offensive zone pressure. Being limited to only eight shots, Elmira went to the locker room needing to find a way to put up some more shots on Carolina netminder Christian Pavlas.

The second period turned into a bit more of the competitive matchup the fans expected. A beautiful play to extend his scoring streak to 27 straight games gave Ahmed Mahfouz a goal on the power play when Glen Patterson backhanded a pass out to him right in the slot and the captain shoved it by Pavlas. After the goal however, Mahfouz and Pavlas mixed it up pretty regularly for the next 5 minutes. Right in front of the net Pavlas gave Mahfouz a shot with his blocker that sent both sides into a scrum landing Pavlas and Joe Cangelosi in the box for Carolina and Mahfouz and Stepan Timofeyev in the box for Elmira. When both sides were released the parties got right back into it as Timofeyev jumped to avoid a kneeled Pavlas and Mike Baker took exception going one on one with Timofeyev, while Mahfouz and Pietrantonio had a battle of their own ensuring another four on four session. With just 91 seconds to go in the period Carolina would be the beneficiary of a bad bounce and put another by Passingham to reclaim the lead going into the third period.

The third period saw a lot of back and forth, but lacked for any excitement on the scoreboard. The Enforcers kept pushing, but when they tried to pull the netminder for the advantage, Mike Baker threw the puck 200 feet and cashed in on the empty net to give the Thunderbirds a 3-1 lead. With Passingham back in net the Thunderbirds had an odd man rush with the Enforcers pressing and though Troy made the first stop he couldn't stop the rebound giving Carolina a 4-1 lead and the victory.

The Enforcers will look for retribution from the Thunderbirds tomorrow night as the two teams play game two of a three game series at 7:05 pm at First Arena. Get your tickets now and collect strip #2 of the first ever Enforcers trading card set.

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Federal Prospects Hockey League Stories from March 8, 2019


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