January 30 Game Report

Was there a full moon on Saturday or what? Those of you who got to the game early may have witnessed the donnybrook that ensued at the tail end of Lightning's 8-1 lambasting of the Saints. While the players kept their gloves on for the Thunder vs Blue Devils rematch that followed, things got a bit chippy in the stands, so much so that I was considering sending the story along to ABC's John Stossel. A handful of Brockport fans did a fine job of embarrassing themselves grousing over every call that the refs made or didn't make. And there were comments like "you're not #1 in the state anymore" and "we'll get there before you this year" which doesn't really make any sense given Thunder is in class A and B-port is in class B, and besides, what does that have to do with the officiating anyway? Until you have laced up the skates, put on a zebra suit and officiated a game of ice hockey, you really have no clue how difficult it can be to keep track of 10 skaters, 2 goalies, 2 nets, 2 player benches, 2 penalty boxes, a scoreboard, and a rubber biscuit that is flying around at high rates of speed, while you are skating on two thin blades of steel and trying not to become a part of the play. Not to mention all the people screaming at you from the stands. Surely everyone who has been around hockey for a while has uttered their fair share of remarks about the refs, but to expect the refs to see everything exactly the way you see it while looking on with a birdseye view from the stands is simply preposterous. They are not perfect, they make mistakes just the same as the players who are playing the game and the coaches who are coaching the game. They are all human. If it makes you sleep better at night thinking you got a home job, then good for you. If you think you can do better, then i dare you to give it a try. Otherwise, give me a break.

Where was I? Oh yea, oh say can you see... Amanda Sherry, AGR anthem soloist, kicking things off as Thunder was home in white hosting the Brockport Blue Devils visiting in navy on Saturday at the shore. Andrew Simonelli got the nod in the nets for the Thunder against Blue Devil's freshman Justin Keene, who was coincidentally wearing the same #33, and away we go. Blue Devils D-man Zach Coughlin delivered an early wake up call to Thunder, sneaking in from the blueline and taking a back door feed upstairs during the first minute play, assisted by Connor Moore and Tyler Hill. Cumming made a nice save on an errant pass headed into the Thunder bench... way to look alive Ian. Blue Devils netted another with 3:15 to go in the first frame, a shortie by Hill from Dan Callahan and Kyle Wallenhorst. Vypes snapped his twig winding up a slapper from top of the key at the close of the period, cha-ching, there goes a couple of benjamins. Snake wields the same x60 but it's about 2-3" longer and then some, so Vypes had to go with his Sarazin backup, which carried him through the post season and assisted on the game winner during the final game in Utica, but apparently the stick is no good, lol. Kids these days. In my day, we cut a branch from a tree and whittled it down to make a hockey stick!

Thunder carried a 1.18 powerplay balance into the second stanza, but despite great puck movement on the man advantage they still couldn't solve Keene. Mike Briganti executed his patented 2-legged harry to block a shot at the point. From this point forward on Thunder the maneuver shall be known as a "Ganti". Speaking of patenting things, what's up with Brockport using Thunder's "balls-out" chant at he beginning of each period? Connor Sullivan widened the gap to 3-0 for Brockport with a goal midway through the period assisted by Wallenhorst. Keough broke a stick, but no data was available on the lineage of his backup at the time of this report. Greece continued moving the puck well and repeatedly bringing it to the net, but it was as if Keene had cellophane covering the plane of the goal mouth when a couple of slow rollers finally got behind him and stalled just shy of the goal line. Broken sticks and a hot goalie would not be enough to break Thunder's spirit though as they mushed on for 27.5 minutes before an unassuming lob on net from the blueline by Mike McNeil got the better of Keene and Thunder was on the board. Way to mix it up and go with the off-speed Mike. But Thunder's celebration was short-lived as Connor Moore answered back just 27 seconds later for Brockport, assisted by Zach Coughlin, to restore their 3-goal lead at 4-1. Ian Cumming came off the bench in relief to get Thunder out of the inning.

Back from the break, the outlook was kind of bleak for Thunder thought a doubting Layton as time was slipping away, "Maybe last last year's team could have scored 4 goals in one period to win it but not this year". How about 3 goals in a five minute flurry to tie it, thanks to Trey's challenge! Cheese started the rally with 5.05 to go by putting away a rebound on Vyper's shot assisted by Andrew Sherry. Then came a pretty PPG two and half minutes later as McNeil went up top to Vyper who swung it to Simmy on the wing and then Simmy swept it home to draw near at 4-3. Greece took a timeout with 37 seconds left and returned with an air of determination. In a matter of 12 seconds, it was Cheese finishing the rally he started with the GTG, assisted by Vyper and Simmy, and we were going to OT knotted at 4's. Thunder enjoyed a few chances in OT as both teams held on for the point.

Thunder's record advances to 6-3-2 (7-5-3-1 overall) leaving them alone in second place behind Lightning in the West division with 3 games to go (CC, AQ, IHS). Said Webb of Thunder's come from behind tie, "The chips were down but they pulled together and did what they had to do to come back". Thunder out shot the Blue Devils in all 4 periods, 8-6, 12-9, 12-7, 3-2, for a 3-period total of 35-24. First star of the game goes to Brandon Cheeseman with a pair of goals including the GTG. Second star of the game goes to Dan Vyverberg with 3 assists for a playmaker. Third star goes to Brockport's Justin Keene with 31 saves on 35 shots. Simonelli and Cumming combined for a total of 20 saves for Thunder.