Galaxy of Goals, Otherworldly Goaltending Leads to 6-0 Win, Sweep of Hat Tricks

WYTHEVILLE, VA-

1/11/25

On Rebrand night, which saw the Blue Ridge Bobcats temporarily transform into the Appalachian Aliens, the club used a galaxy full of goals and an otherworldly performance between the pipes to fly to a 6-0 shutout win and a sweep of the Danbury Hat Tricks.

Much like Friday's contest, both clubs took the first fie-plus minutes for a feeling out process, until Andrew Uturo opened the scoring. He beat Frankie McClendon far side with a wrist shot with help from Nick Stuckless and Daniel Klinecky at the 6:24 mark of the opening frame on what would be the game winning goal and only marker of the first period.

The middle frame saw the purple sweater clad Aliens blast off to a four-goal 2nd period, with the onslaught started by Alex Norwinski, who redirected a wrist shot from Vladislav Vlasov home just over 5 and a half minutes in. Less than three minutes later, Nick McHugh jammed home a loose puck in a net mouth scramble to push the lead to 3-0. 

Seven minutes following McHugh's marker, new addition TJ Prexler got on the board with his first professional goal, redirecting a pass from Timur Gavrilovich under the crossbar and in to quadruple the advantage. Less than two minutes after Prexler, Austin Bellefeuille banked one in off the skate of a Danbury defender for the exclamation point to an out-of-this world second period.

The exclamation point on the night overall was the only goal of the final frame, when at the 9:40 mark Devin Sanders beautifully fed Carson Andreoli for the sixth and final tally of the evening.

Danbury was ahead on the shot counter for most of the night, but not the scoreboard thanks to otherworldly goaltending from Hunter Virostek. The game's first star stopped all 44 Hat Tricks shots he faced en route to his third shutout of the season.

Uturo earned second star for his opening goal, and Josh Slegers earned third star for picking up a pair of assists.

Next up, a home-and-home with the Carolina Thunderbirds next weekend with Friday's game in Winston-Salem and a return to Hitachi Energy Arena next Saturday night.