Birds Blast Bobcats 5-2, Lead Best of 3 Series 1-0

WYTHEVILLE, VA

Despite playing before a record crowd of 2,407 at Hitachi Energy Arena, the Blue Ridge Bobcats could not take the momentum from Tuesday's wildcard win and were boatraced by the Thunderbirds of Carolina 5-2 in game 1 of the Commissioner's Cup Quarterfinals.

Roma Kraemer, the game's first star, opened the scoring by rifling a wrister far side on Greg Hussey just 3:09 in. Hussey and his teammates continued to struggle as Carolina controlled the pace of play, adding a pair off the stick of leading scorer Gus Ford to take a 3-0 lead into the first intermission.

Jiri Pestuka kept the Birds on the gas pedal when he sniped home a wrister just 68 seconds into the 2nd period. Denis Radchenko finally woke the crowd and his bench up when he rocketed home a wrist shot past Mario Cavaliere to cut the lead to 4-1, but three goals was as close as the 'Cats would get. Petr Panacek answered a little over 6 minutes after Radchenko to restore Carolina's 4 goal advantage.

Justin Daly had the game's only power play goal and the only goal of the third period at the 13:39 mark of the final frame.

Carolina now leads the best-of-three series 1-0, meaning Blue Ridge must win tomorrow night's game in Winston-Salem to force a game 3 on Sunday. Puck drop for the do-or-die game 2 is set for 7:30 PM from the Fairgrounds Arena.