February 9 Game Report

The Greece Athena/Odyssey Thunder Hockey Team kissed their sisters of Aquinas for the second time this season with a 2-2 tie tuesday nite at the shore. It was senior nite with Grandpa Marty rolling out the purple carpet and Grandpa Joe at the mic to emcee the event, putting in a plug for his grandson Mike Miller's birthday. Cheese, Mills, Vypes, Hebs, Lerch, Keough, and Lepore met their respective families on the runway to share a photo op, giving props to those who have supported them throughout their HS Hockey Careers and offering a glimpse of their future plans as they head out into the real world. Kate-E with your pitch so bright, won't you sing our anthem tonight. Then all the seniors loved her, as she shouted out with "real glee", Kate-E the International Show Choir Sensation, you'll go down in Thunder His-to-ry, as will Pete Feola, an accomplished local official who called this game en route to his biggest assignment ever up north in Vancouver over the coming weeks!

AQ's Bernie Gauthier got loose, drawing a penalty shot after being taken down by Tyler Grimshaw on a breakaway attempt in the early going. Fear not as, unlike his dad in the stands, Ian was cool as a cucumber on the ice, poke checking Gauthier to keep AQ at bay, for the time being anyway. Thunder controlled the play for the next six minutes in the wake of Cumming's big stop. But AQ would take the reigns with six mins to go in the first frame as Nick Montinarelli put away the rebound from a Jeff Hackshaw shot that was assisted by Gauthier off a draw to the left of Cumming. Dohr looked shaky down the stretch but managed to keep Thunder scoreless on the 12 shots they took to AQ's 9 in the opening period.

Second period saw Eric Hostetter at long last rewarded with his first goal of the season five minutes in, as he sailed a sweet backhander through a crack in the Dohr, fed out front by Matt Keough, assisted by Dan Vyverberg, to even up. Five minutes later Nico Gonzalez rallied to regain the lead for AQ with a rebound off a point-shot by Joe Snook. Vypes bookended the period with a pair of long-lead breakaway passes to connect the dots with Cheese, but the puck never met the twine, not for a lack of trying and it certainly got everyone on their feet. Thunder outshot Aquinas 11-8 in the second for a two-period total of 23-17, although AQ led 2-1 on the scoreboard going to the break.

Five minutes into the third Vyper cranked a low slapper on net, assisted by Simmy, and McNugget got a piece of it for the PPG to knot the game at 2s. AQ took a timeout with 27 seconds left in regulation but there was nothing doing as Thunder shut things down to get to overtime with a 7-5 shot margin that made it 30-22 Thunder through three periods. Thunder enjoyed a 2-man advantage in the beginning of OT as did AQ when they pulled their goalie at the end. But neither team would claim the game before the extra period had expired.

With this tie Thunder remains second in the West, a point ahead of AQ, with a record of 7-3-3 (8-6-4-1 overall). Shots were 2-0 Thunder in overtime making it 32-22 overall in Thunder's favor. Cumming stopped 20 of the 22 he faced and Dohr made 30 saves on 32 shots for AQ. First star goes to Dan Vyverberg who assisted on both goals for Thunder and played with a lot of heart throughout. Second star goes to Mike McNeil with the GTG. Third star goes to Eric Hostetter whose hard work all season finally paid off with a G.