12/15 Game Report

Oh, the weather outside is frightful
But the game is so delightful
Your Thunder's back on a roll
Score-a-goal, score-a-goal, score-a-goal!

Mascots skating at the beginning
And Amanda's at the mic a singing
Your Thunder's back on a roll
Score-a-goal, score-a-goal, score-a-goal!

When the horn finally ends the game
How i'll hate going out in the storm
But, if we win just the same
All the way home i'll be warm!

The time is slowly ticking
And, your cheese, was called for high-sticking
But that was a cheese-y call
Score-a-goal, score-a-goal, score-a-goal!

Thunder did indeed score-a-goal, score-a-goal, score-a-goal , but Lightning would only strike once in this, their first meeting of the 09-10 season, where Greece Athena/Odyssey defeated Greece Arcadia/Olympia 3-1, before a packed house on hand in the stands at the 'shore. Despite a scoreless first frame and shots fairly even at 6-5 in Lightnings favor, there was plenty of eye-candy, what with all the banging after a week of angle hitting in practice. Leading the way for Thunder was Andrew Sherry, who table topped his check with an open ice hit at the Lightning's blue line that would easily garner the Taco Bell Gordita Crunch of the game. Joining the hit-parade and rattling the boards for Thunder were the likes of Grimmy, Mills, Ganti, and Cheese, not to mention the rest of the D.

Coming off a strong kill backed by the Venom brothers, to bridge the first and second frame, Thunder had Lightning pinned in their own end for quite a spell. But the pendulum would eventually swing the other way, forcing Thunder to scramble to dig out from under themselves. Finally, midway thru the second, Mike McNeil said enough is enough, as he came barrelling down the right side and blasted one by Opladen to light the lamp that would guide Thunder's sleigh, with Hebs and Hots picking up the helpers along the way. Mike Briganti kept pounding away and forcing the play as Thunder took their 1-goal lead into the intermission.

Lightning came back fired up and hitting early in the 3rd, but Vyper let some air out of their tires when he snapped off a twisted-wrister from the blue line that found its way thru traffic, post and in, to make it 2-0 Thunder. A couple of minnows later, Lightning thought they had their first, when the puck went in, after a scrum ensued just outside the paint, to the left of Cumming. But the goal was waived off, given a Lightning helmet came off during the play, before the puck went in. Thunder poured some salt in the wound with a sweet play for their third marker with only 3 minutes remaining. The goal originated with a neutral zone regroup from McNeil back to Vyper, over to Hebs, up to Mills, off the board to Hots, then Hots lugged the mail up the left wing and centered it to McNeil who was crashing the net for the 2 on 1 tally. Lightning came back with a whimper, scoring a PPG with just under 2 minutes to go, but that's all she wrote.

First star of the game goes to Mike McNeil with a pair of goals, second star goes to Ian Cumming with 24 saves, and third star goes to Dan Vyverberg with the winner. Although Thunder was outshot 25-19, they still came out on top with a 3-1 win to advance their record to 2-1. Says Webb "our goalie just played better". Added Wader, "we corrected mistakes in practice and came with a better attitude".