Danbury’s Michael Marchesan scored a goal in overtime to beat the Carolina Thunderbirds 3-2 to win the Federal Prospects Hockey League’s Commissioner’s Cup on Sunday night.
The Hat Tricks wound up winning three straight games at home in the Danbury Arena in Connecticut to win the best-of-five championship series. The Thunderbirds had won the first two games at the Winston-Salem Fairgrounds Annex last weekend but were denied their second league title in the last five seasons.
Jiri Pestuka’s power-play goal on a slap shot from the top with five minutes to play in the game tied it at 2 as the Thunderbirds battled back from the 2-1 deficit.
Pestuka’s goal was the final one in regulation with the game going into overtime.
Early in the second period Tucker Firth of the Thunderbirds was assessed a five-minute major penalty for a hard hit to the head of a Hat Tricks’ player. The Hat Tricks took advantage and scored to make it 2-1 but because it was a major penalty the power play continued. Danny Martin was then called for a five-minute boarding major penalty and the Hat Tricks had a 5-on-3 advantage for a minute.
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The Thunderbirds killed the first major penalty and then went another minute without allowing a goal before teams were at even strength again.
The Hat Tricks took the 2-1 lead into the third period.
In the first period the Hat Tricks scored 56 seconds into the game when Marchesan got a goal with an assist credited to Brendan Sheehan.
The Thunderbirds tied it with a minute to go in the first period with an unassisted goal from Josh Koepplinger.
The Hat Tricks also had a golden chance to score midway through the first period but missed a penalty shot.
The Hat Tricks had the home-ice advantage in the series because they had the best record in the league. The Thunderbirds had the second-best record in the league.