the new series of thunderbirds started on october 26, 2018.
when does the new series of thunderbirds start?
october 26, 2018
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the team was one of the founding five teams to form the east coast hockey league (echl) in the 1988. bill coffey sold the team to minority owner john baker during the season. on october 28, 1988 the thunderbirds played at the johnstown chiefs in the first game in echl history. the team's 1988–89 regular season was mediocre and the team went through four different head coaches. incumbent head coach brian carroll was replaced early in the season by joe selenski. keith mcadams then filled in as head coach for one game before the team hired brendon watson as head coach on february 19 with only 13 games left in the season. watson coached the team to 8 wins in the final 13 games before the playoffs. the team struggled on defense during the regular season, with a 5.48 goals against average (gaa) per game. with a 27–32–1 record, the team finished in fourth place in the five team league. as the fourth seed, the thunderbirds swept the regular season champion erie panthers in four games. in the inaugural echl championships, the thunderbirds faced the johnstown chiefs. the thunderbirds lost game one at the chiefs 8–1 as the chiefs scored four power play goals during the game. after losing the first two games by a combined score of 14–2 in johnstown, the thunderbirds won the next three games to take a series lead 3–2, putting the thunderbirds one win away from the title. game two had a combined 186 penalty minutes between the teams. during the series, the ice at winston-salem coliseum melted prior to game four because a compressor shut down during the night. the originally scheduled game five in johnstown became game four and the thunderbirds hosted game five back at home. the chiefs' tom sasso scored two shorthand goals to help his team evened the series in game six by defeating the thunderbirds 7–4, a game that included several fights. after the game, in an effort to protect the league's image, echl commissioner pat kelly suspended three (steve plakson, bill huard and michael lanouette) of the thunderbirds' players. as a result, the thunderbirds were forced to face the chiefs in the seventh and deciding game with just 11 skaters. coach watson used a plan of changing personal on every whistle during game seven to slow down the pace of the game and buy as much rest for the few players he had available as possible. in spite of this set back, in the final game of the series, the thunderbirds beat the chiefs 7–4 to win the first echl championship, and were awarded the riley cup for the season. goaltender nick vitucci was named the most valuable player for the playoffs. in the series, john devereaux and e.j. sauer lead the thunderbirds in goals with five each, bob wensley lead the team with eight assists, and randy irving lead the team with nine points from three goals and six assists. , three thunderbirds' players still held the top three spots for the echl record for the most penalty minutes in a finals series from that year; steve plaskon with 95, michel lanouette with 68 and bill huard with 58. six thunderbirds scored one a power play goal each and sauer scored the teams only short–handed goal, during game three, of the series.
carolina thunderbirds