Rockers Drop 5th Straight, Lose to Carolina 3-2

Fraser, MI — The Motor City Rockers’ losing streak continued with a 3-2 loss to the Carolina Thunderbirds on Friday night.

The Rockers have now lost five straight.

Nothing was resolved in the first period as most of the both team’s offense was pushed out towards the wall. Carolina led shots 10-8, until the Rockers cracked the scoreboard in the second period. 

Leading goal scorer Scott Coash slipped behind an over eager Thunderbird back line as Dante Suffredini hit the Plainfield, IL forward in stride. As Coash raced into the zone, he fired the puck and followed up his own rebound and buried it short side for a 1-0 lead on his 11th of the year 1:48 into the middle frame. 

Four minutes later the Motor City struck again as the revamped second line found its footing. 

Cade Lambdin, who is playing in his first game since returning to the team this week, chipped the puck ahead to Pavel Svintsov. The Russian offered a no-look drop pass to TJ Sneath who buried a wrister from inside the left circle for a 2-0 lead. 

The Thunderbirds were able to fight back at the midway point of the second after finishing off a loose puck battle in front of the net.

After an initial attempt by John Buttitta and a follow-up by Joe Kennedy left the puck loose in the crease for Jacob Schnapp who lifted the puck past a sprawled Trevor Babin to cut into the lead 2-1 with 10:44remaining. 

Two and a half minutes later, the Thunderbirds’ Czech line pulled the game to even at 2-2.

Jiri Pestuka fed the puck to the neutral zone to Petr Panacek. Panacek one touched the puck to a driving Jan Salak to the nearside post and he put away his seventh goal of the season with 8:26 to play.

The game winner and third straight goal came with 52-seconds left as Schnapp entered the zone and caught Motor City in a line change. As a too-many men call was prepped, Schnapp had a clear walk-in opportunity and fired the puck to the top shelf to negate the power play and give the Thunderbirds a 3-2 win.

Motor City will get to regroup as it looks to break the five game losing skid to a halt on December 22nd and 23rd against the Elmira RiverSharks at Big Boy Arena before the team goes on Christmas break.