Ice Dogs slip past Thunder

The Borderland Thunder would be happier if Tyler Desjarlais stuck to piling up penalty minutes rather than points.
The Dryden Ice Dogs’ forward was one of the SIJHL’s most frequent visitors to the “sin bin” last year. But while he still has a solid place in the top 10 of that category so far this season, he’s also taken more of a liking to scoring with his stick rather than his fists.
He built on his newfound offensive prowess last night, netting the game-winner on the power-play and also adding an assist as the host Ice Dogs (9-3-2-1) edged the Thunder (6-5) by a 2-1 margin.
Desjarlais set up Joel Poshtar for the only goal of the first period at 4:45. The tally furthered Poshtar’s blazing start to the season—his 17 goals is almost double any other player in the SIJHL—while he also leads the league in points (26).
Then with Ian Lockman sitting out an elbowing minor, Desjarlais finished off a three-way passing play involving Mike MacIntyre and Pat Selin at 2:49 of the second to make it 2-0.
The Thunder—who mustered only 18 shots against Dryden goalie Liam Johnston—tried to come back on the strength of Aaron Boyer’s fourth goal of the year at 10:51.
But Johnston and the Ice Dogs weren’t to be denied as the Thunder took the only two penalties in the third, then capped their frustrating night after the final buzzer sounded by being issued a game misconduct bench penalty for the second-straight game.
The third-place Thunder, who fell nine points behind the leagueleading Ice Dogs, will try and break their three-game losing streak when they head to Thunder Bay on Friday and Saturday to face the fourth-place KC Bulldogs (3-6-2).
Defenceman Charlie Burd, picked up recently from the Melville Millionaires of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League, made his Thunder debut last night.
The team still is awaiting the arrival of forward Justin Green, who was signed off the roster of the Billings (Mont.) Bulls of the America West Hockey League.
Thunder captain Josh McAndrew (wrist), along with defencemen Andrew Perrault (knee) and Ryan Mayman (ribs), all sat out last night’s game—with none of them expected to see action this weekend, either.
The Thunder’s next home game is this Tuesday (Nov. 4) at 7:30 p.m. when they host the Ice Dogs.