River Dragons Sweep Carolina With 4-2 Win On Road
Columbus, GA - The Columbus River Dragons earned their first weekend sweep of the season defeating the Carolina Thunderbirds for a second straight night, this time on the road by a score of 4-2.
A scoreless first period made what is normally a testy affair between these two teams be even more contentious, but for the second straight the River Dragons power play opened the scoring with Jagger Williamson finding himself all alone in the slot and pulling off a nifty between the legs move for the goal.
That goal would hold up through the remainder of the 2nd period, however some late penalties against the River Dragons in the period would give Carolina just over 1:20 of 5-on-3 time to start the 3rd.
On their extended man-advantage Carolina would tie the game up with Jiri Pestuka feeding a perfect backdoor pass to John Buttitta to tie the game 50 seconds in to the final period.
Columbus would respond with a run of their own though. 5:51 into the period, Josh Pietrantonio slammed home a rebound for his first goal of the season in his first game back in the Winston-Salem Fairgrounds Annex. Then two goals in a span of 57 seconds saw MJ Graham deflect one in off of a Thunderbirds defenseman and past Nick Modica followed closely by a seeing-eye shot from distance off the stick of Noah Doyle to give Columbus a 4-1 lead late in the game.
A goal for David Nicoletti would draw Carolina back within two, but it was too little too late for the home team and Columbus skated off the ice with three points and a weekend sweep.
Jared Rutledge picks up the win with 32 saves on 34 Carolina shots. Nick Modica was the busier netminder in the game with 40 saves on 44 shots.
Columbus and Carolina finish off a 5-in-a-row set on Wednesday night at the Civic Center. Tickets available at the Civic Center Box Office or on TicketMaster.
Three Stars of the Game
Josh Pietrantonio
Jared Rutledge
Nick Modica