Athens Rocks Carolina 7 to 4

Rock Lobsters Ground Thunderbirds in Sunday Matineé

ATHENS, GA - The Athens Rock Lobsters dealt a heavy blow to their Sunday visitors, defeating the Continental Division’s top team in the Carolina Thunderbirds 7-4. 

Garrett Milan once again showed the ’S’ underneath his jersey befitting his Superman status, securing four points on the night. He got going 2:40 into the game, using a high-slot wrister to get the scoring started. 

3 minutes separated two goals from the Thunderbirds later on in the first, with Nate Keeley and Gus Ford shooting Carolina into a first-period lead. 

Michael Greco scored his first goal as a Rock Lobster with 27 seconds to go in the first with a wrister that deflected off of Thunderbird goaltender Mario Cavaliere and in.

Kayson Gallant scored just 21 seconds into the second period, tipping a Troy Murray shot in. It was the Canadian’s first of the night, later scoring his second on a highlight-reel backhand feed from behind the net by Filip Virgili.

In between Gallant’s two goals were tallies from the two teams’ captains. Both wearing no. 14, Carter Shinkaruk and Jon Buttitta left their marks on this game.

Entering the third period up 5-3, there was still some uneasiness from the Akins Ford Arena crowd. That discomfort was ended by Daniil Glukharyov, who finished off a highlight-reel passing play between his linemates to take a 6-3 lead. 

After Danyk Drouin made the comeback plausible once again, Malik Johnson put the finishing touches on a memorable night after scoring in his return on loan from ECHL club South Carolina Stingrays.

The Rock Lobsters scored three power-play goals on the night against the best penalty-kill team in the FPHL.

Making his professional-hockey debut, Dominic Rodrigue secured the win and made 21 saves on 25 shots.

The Rock Lobsters (16-3-2, 39 pts) travel to Monroe, La. for a two-game set against the Moccasins next weekend. Both the Friday and Saturday contests drop the puck at 8 p.m. EST.