Thunder looking to bounce back

Maddening is perhaps one way to describe the up-and-down play of the Borderland Thunder 40 games into the season.
After losing to the Dryden Ice Dogs up there last Wednesday night, the Thunder went 1-2 on a road trip to Thunder Bay over the weekend, falling to the first-place Fort William First Nation North Stars before splitting a pair with the fourth-place K&A Golden Hawks.
The Thunder were outshot 48-22 on Friday night in a 5-1 defeat to the North Stars.
Trailing 2-0, Brock Harling drew the Thunder to within 2-1 with 17 minutes left in the second period.
But the North Stars answered with two more goals in the period, then added another in the third, to seal the win in a physical affair that saw the Thunder take 16 penalties while Fort William had 14.
Kevin Kauk, who joined the team after the Christmas break, got the start over usual number-one goalie Tyler Gordon, who is out for an indefinite period due to health problems.
“His health is our main concern,” Thunder head coach Dave Allison said of Gordon, who was leading the Canadian Junior Hockey League with six shutouts and ranked 16th with a 2.32 goals against average.
But Kauk would be impressive the following night against the Golden Hawks, stopping 36 of 38 shots to help his team to a 5-2 win.
Steve Sus (Harling) got the lone goal of the first period, then the Thunder added two more in the second from Tanner Kaemingh (Riley Dudar/Morgan Cekalla) and Martin Kloucek (Kurt Hogard/Dennis Morrison).
But the Golden Hawks would not roll over, striking twice with four minutes left in the period to make the score 3-2.
Josh McAndrew iced the win with a pair of goals in the third period, with Aaron Boyer, Dudar, and Hogard drawing assists.
The Thunder spent 65 minutes in the penalty box Saturday night, but that wasn’t the maddening part. What was maddening was the effort they brought against the Golden Hawks for Sunday afternoon’s game, which wound up being a 4-2 loss to a team 28 points behind them in the standings.
Harling and McAndrew got the goals, with Clayton Windigo, Scott Bridgeman, and Boyer adding assists.
The Thunder’s record since Christmas has been an anemic 5-7-2, but Allison contends that while they might be on a downswing, there is no better time to have one than now.
“We still have quite a few games until the playoffs and there is enough time for players to step up and take advantage of their opportunities,” he said.
The Thunder also have been hit by the injury bug lately. Besides Gordon, David Gooch is out indefinitely with a knee injury while Andrew Perreault (knee) is gone for the season.
Meanwhile, Hogard and Sus are playing with shoulder injuries.
All this has required some line shuffling, but Allison is hoping his players treat this more like an opportunity than a problem.
“When somebody goes down, it’s a great opportunity for somebody else,” he reasoned. “I’m reading a book by Bobby Knight, and he’s talking about some things that he puts a lot of stock on, and two of them are seeing and learning.
“Our guys have to be able to see more about what’s going on out there, and learn more about how to play the game,” Allison stressed.
The Thunder (26-11-3) essentially have a lock on second place as the regular season winds down, but they still will be looking to turn things around when they face the third-place Ice Dogs (17-19-0) in Dryden tonight.
After beating the Ice Dogs the first six times the two teams met to start the season, Dryden has won the last two games.