Pee Dee Continues Domination of Blue Ridge, Wins Fifth Straight in Series 5-2

WYTHEVILLE, VA-

Meeting for the first time since November 26th, the Pee Dee IceCats picked up right where they left off against the homestanding Blue Ridge Bobcats, potting four unanswered goals en route to their fifth straight win in the series, 5-2 before a crowd of nearly 2,000 at Hitachi Energy Arena. 

Both squads took a scoreless first period to feel each other out in Pee Dee's first visit to Blue Ridge since late October.

Nick Stuckless opened the scoring 8:14 into the middle frame, sniping a wrist shot high past Parker Rutherford and just under the bar off a great zone entry drop pass from Nikita Kozyrev. Nick Gullo potted a rebound past Anthony Shrum to answer for the Ice Cats 5:20 later.

Mike Mercurio converted on a breakaway set up by Filip Hlavac in the midst of a 4-on-4 sequence to put the Bobcats back ahead briefly 2-1. The lead, though, was short lived and would be the last Blue Ridge tally of the evening.

Exactly 2 minutes later Dominiks Marcinkevics backhanded one just past Shrum's pad to send the game to the second intermission tied at 2, and beginning a stretch of 4 unanswered Ice Cats goals.

Alexander Legkov scored the game winner at the 6:57 mark of the third. Dominiks Marcinkevics and Vadim Frolov each added tallies to seal the deal in the final minute.

Both teams rematch tomorrow night at 7:30 pm.