Thunder looking to bounce back tonight

The Borderland Thunder will be taking the ice tonight at the Ice for Kids Arena against the Dryden Ice Dogs.
Game time is slated for 7:30 p.m.
The Thunder will be looking to bounce back after suffering their first loss of the regular season this past Saturday here against the K&A Variety Golden Hawks by a final of 5-3, which gave them a 11-1-1 record in the SIJHL.
“We just got plain outworked,” said head coach Dave Allison after the loss. “You can expect a letdown, but it was pretty poor all over the ice.
“It’s not the standards we set, and we’ll go from there.
“They just outworked us. That’s the great thing about athletics. It doesn’t matter how good you think you are, if the other team’s willing to work harder and willing to help each other out more, you’re not going to win,” he added.
Even with the loss the Thunder still sit in first place in the SIJHL with four games in hand over the undefeated Fort William First Nation North Stars, who are 8-0-1, and Thunder defenceman Kurt Hogard said the loss puts things in perspective.
“We beat them and every other team with a big score, so we just figured that we’d walk all over them. But they wanted to play hockey and we didn’t,” said Hogard.
“It gives us a new look on things. We can’t just go out there and go through the motions. We’ve got to get things done, and do it like we were doing in the last 12 games,” he added.
And Thunder forward Aaron Boyer, who sits second in the SIJHL’s scoring race with 19 points, between his top line teammates Dennis Morrison (18 points) and Josh McAndrew (25 points), will be looking to get things back on track against the 4-9 Ice Dogs.
“I think we got too carried away with our winning. Every time we showed up to the rink, we just thought, ‘Come out, have some fun, and maybe pop some points’, and guys weren’t taking it seriously enough. And it showed in our effort,” said Boyer.
“I think it’s a good reality check, because the guys know that we can be beaten, and the guys have to show up and work harder. They outworked us out there. I have no doubt that we’re more skilled, but we’ve just got to bring that effort every night,” Boyer explained.