[2] The Carolina Thunderbirds were one of five teams that played during the inaugural season of East Coast Hockey League (ECHL).
The team changed its name to the Winston-Salem Thunderbirds before the start of 1989–90 season and the team remained in the ECHL until the end of the 1991–92 season when it was announced by co-owner Ed Broyhill that Winston-Salem would move to West Virginia to play as the Wheeling Thunderbirds.
During the season, Gusky called recently retired former Buffalo Sabres' player Rick Dudley and asked for help with the struggling team.
[citation needed] In their inaugural season, the team would finished 14–33–3 under head coach Curry Whittaker.
[7] Former Colorado Rockies player Dave Watson also joined the team and led the league in scoring with 102 points, 53 goals, and 49 assists.
John Torchetti began his professional hockey career with the Thunderbirds, while Irving and Bob Hagan were named first team ACHL All-Stars for the season.
Center Joe Curran, scored 42 goals and league best 82 assists for a total of 124 points, was awarded the team's second ACHL MVP after the season.
Huglen was unable to get the same results and after a poor 12–16 record to start the season, including 11 straight losses, he was replaced by another former Thunderbird player, Pierre Hamel.
Hamel started the season as head coach but was replaced by another former Thunderbird player, Brian Carroll, mid-season.
John Torchetti set season records with 63 goals scored and 134 points and was a first team AAHL All-Star.
Incumbent head coach Brian Carroll was replaced early in the season by Joe Selenski.
As the fourth seed, the Thunderbirds swept the regular season champion Erie Panthers in four games.
During the series, the ice at Winston-Salem Coliseum melted prior to game four because a compressor shut down during the night.
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.
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,[17] and were awarded the Riley Cup for the season.
As of 2018[update], 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.
[19] Len Soccio, Joe Ferras and Trent Kaese all finished in the top four of the league scoring, while goaltenders Paul Cohen and Kenton Rein both finished the season in the top five for goals against average (GAA) in the league.
The Thunderbirds were placed in the West Division, posted a record of 20–41–3 and failed to make the playoffs for the first time.
Fraser stepped down as head coach mid-season to return to only general manager duties and Marcel Comeau, previously the head coach of the New Haven Nighthawks of the American Hockey League before being let go earlier in the season, was named as his replacement.
Goaltender Frédéric Chabot led the league with the best goals against average (GAA) during the season at 2.94 per game.
After the end of the 1991–92 season, it was announced by co-owner Ed Broyhill that Winston-Salem would move to West Virginia to play as the Wheeling Thunderbirds.