Twin City Outlasts Blue Ridge 3-2 In Overtime Opening of "The Rivalry"

WYTHEVILLE, VA-

The Twin City Thunderbirds outlasted the Blue Ridge Bobcats 3-2 in a back-and-forth Friday night overtime affair before a crowd of nearly 2,000 on Virginia Veterans Night at Hitachi Energy Arena.

Between two of the FPHL's hottest and most evenly matched squads, the first of 13 meetings between the two rivals separated by just 93 miles was just as tight-checking and closely contested as expected.

Twin City's Dominic Dumas opened the scoring with a shorthanded snipe past Max Macchioni after a Bobcats turnover in the defensive zone just past the halfway mark of the opening frame.

Max Sazanovets responded for Blue Ridge, hard-charging through the middle of the ice and backhanding a shot past Aydin Eidsness through a maze of screened bodies to tie the game at 1 at the 13:22 mark of the first.

Things remained tied at 1 through the rest of the first and the first half of the second, before Patriks Marcinkevics converted off of a shorthanded breakaway at the 12:14 mark of the middle frame to briefly put the Bobcats in front 2-1. The lead lasted all of five minutes before Joey McCormick converted on another Blue Ridge turnover to tie the game at 2, where things would stay through the rest of the second and all of the third.

Zach White netted the game winner 44 seconds into the extra frame, beating Macchioni short side after finishing off a 2-on-1 break with help from Jacob Schnapp.

Both teams rematch tomorrow night at 6:05 PM for Twin City's home opener. The game will be available to stream on the Blue Ridge Hockey Network.