February 2 Game Report

Katie Edinger wore her Master's jacket and killed the anthem (that's a good thing) at Lakeshore Tuesday nite as Thunder got ready to rumble with the fighting Saints of Churchville (a little known suburb outside Dublin Ireland). No broken windows in the parking lot tonight, but there was a sighting of Doc the ref stitching up a hand lac for a Saints parent in the snack shop, after Greece dealt Churchville a 4-1 blow on the ice.

Austin Kuntz surprised Ian Cumming with an over the waffle zinger from just inside the blueline only 19 seconds into the contest, assisted by Shawn Easton and Ryan Fitzgerald. Saints enjoyed their one-goal lead for the balance of the period but Brandon Cheeseman would even things up for Thunder (cuz that's what he does) curling out of the left corner and sniping one short side with 39 seconds to go. Shots were 12-6 Thunder in the opening frame.

The go ahead goal for Thunder came 3.5 mins into the second and was awarded to Curran O'Brien, assisted by Anthony Crawford and Mike Miller. My neck was sore due to the sustained pressure in the Saints zone which resulted in a 17-4 shot margin in the second period.

Third period was all Thunder as well with Justin Simonelli lighting the lamp for his grandmother to see from on high, assisted by Cheese and McNeil. Then with a minute remaining, Vypes took the handle from McNeil, who was battling on the half wall on the powerplay, turned and sailed a saucer to Hebs, who would snap off a wrister to cap off the contest at 4-1. Senior manager Tyler Lepore came out for his second appearance on the night (a frightening proposition for a self-taught kid who never played organized hockey growing up) with the fans cheering and his folks grinning ear to ear as Vyper tried banking one off his shins to get him a goal but it was to no avail. At least his folks got to see him skate this time as they missed his debut in one of the earlier preseason scrimmages.

Shots were 44-17 overall in Thunder's favor (with the 17 being generous) as they advanced their record to 7-3-2 (8-5-3-1 overall) with this win and are now resting comfortably at second place in the West Division with 16pts. First star goes to Brandon Cheeseman with 2pts including the winner. Second Star goes to Ian Cumming with 16 saves for his 7th win on the season. Third Star goes to Dylan Niewiemski who almost single-handedly kept the Saints in the game, making 40 saves on 44 shots he faced. Gordita Crunch goes to Jared Tam-Grimshaw for standing up Saints senior Mike Carey at the blueline.