Allison has Thunder looking ahead

For a two-game series just before the holiday break between the two lowest-ranked teams in the league, it doesn’t get much bigger than this.
The defending SIJHL champion Borderland Thunder (7-13-1-1)—currently mired in fourth place—will look to stifle any playoff hopes of the last-place K&A Variety Golden Hawks (2-22-2) at the Ice for Kids Arena here this weekend.
The puck drops at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and 2 p.m. on Saturday.
The Hawks have lost nine in a row and sit 10 points behind the Thunder for the fourth-and-final playoff spot, with Borderland also having four games in hand.
The Thunder have won all four games between the two teams so far this season—outscoring the Hawks 30-12—and are 5-3-1 on home ice. But all those favourable factors aren’t distracting Thunder head coach Dave Allison from the task at hand.
“It’s a huge series for us,” said Allison, whose team is coming off a second-straight two-game sweep at the hands of the first-place Fort William First Nation North Stars, this time in Thunder Bay.
Overall, the Thunder are in the midst of a five-game losing streak, and have just one victory in their last 14 games.
Allison noted the Hawks played the second-place Dryden Ice Dogs tough last weekend, losing 4-2 and 2-1, while the Thunder were on the short end of 5-2 and 3-1 scores against Fort William.
“We’ve got lots to prove,” he conceded. “But if we have to worry about the K&A Hawks [when it comes to making the playoffs], it’s a disappointment.”
Between the infirmary and the league’s disciplinary committee, the Thunder have been unable to dress a consistent line-up for most of the season.
Forward Josh McAndrew is expected to remain out until the new year with his wrist injury, while forwards Sean Councillor and Ian Lockman both will sit out Friday night’s game with one-game suspensions.
Councillor was nailed for his third fighting infraction of the season during Saturday’s 3-1 loss to Fort William while Lockman was tagged as the third man in on the same sequence of action to draw his suspension.
The feisty Lockman had just returned from a three-game suspension for getting a match penalty on a hit from behind Nov. 26 against Dryden.
< *c>Bad omen
The Thunder got bad news before last Friday’s game when top scorer Kevin Webb wound up suffering severe ’flu symptoms that kept him out of the line-up all weekend.
The Stars—now the third-ranked team in the Canadian Junior ‘A’ Hockey League—went up 1-0 at 9:10 of the first on the power play when Steve Atkins and Cory Bruno set up Matt Miller.
Bruno, who contributed to seven of the eight Fort William goals during the weekend, made it a two-goal lead 53 seconds into the second period against Thunder goalie Thomas Dombrowski.
Aaron Boyer notched his ninth of the year on the power play at 5:41—a noteworthy occurrence considering the trouble the Thunder has had recently when holding the man advantage.
But then only six seconds after Clayton Windigo was ticketed for cross-checking, Bruno tallied his second of the game at 11:35 to push Fort William’s lead to 3-1.
Repeating his tendency for quick starts, Bruno waited only 18 seconds into the third period before completing his hat trick, thanks to Atkins’ third assist of the night.
The game got out of hand at the 16:17 mark of the third, beginning with a slashing penalty to Fort William’s Brian Ross that was serious enough to earn him a match penalty and an automatic three-game suspension.
By the time the smoke cleared, four game misconducts had been handed out, including one to Stars’ trainer Dave McCallum for verbally bashing the officials.
Included in that quartet of ejections were the Thunder’s Colten Steinhoff, who received a one-game suspension for being the third man in on a fight, and Andrew Perrault, who also was suspended one game for fighting in the last 10 minutes of a game.
As such, both players sat out Saturday’s contest.
For whatever reason, McCallum didn’t leave the bench right away and 38 seconds after the first explosion, another blow-up occurred when Bruno and Trevor Abraham were given slashing minors.
The Stars’ infuriated response led to Bruno, Tom Grant, and Matt Heerema of Fort William getting 10-minute misconducts, and McCallum a gross misconduct and three-game suspension after the trainer waved his towel in the direction of the referee.
When the teams returned to playing hockey, Kurt Hogard collected the Thunder’s second power-play goal of the game at 19:17 with his sixth of the season to make it 4-2.
But Borderland could do no more with the power play, which lasted the duration of the game.
Spencer Bodnar, the SIJHL’s leading scorer, scored short-handed into the empty Thunder net with one second to play after Dombrowski had been pulled for the extra attacker.
Jean-Frederick Beaudoin, part of the best goaltending tandem in the league right now, improved to 9-3-1 and a 2.97 goals against average.
Meanwhile, Dombrowski remains winless since joining the Thunder from the North Bay Skyhawks two weeks ago, as he fell to 0-3 with a 4.50 G.A.A.
After outshooting the Thunder 39-24 on Friday, Fort William launched another offensive flurry at Borderland on Saturday—making Thunder starting goalie Dan Hoehne’s return to action a hectic one.
Hoehne, who had been out since Nov. 4 with post-concussion syndrome, held the Thunder in the game despite Borderland being outshot 42-19. He looked like the same player who was the Thunder’s Most Valuable Player last season and also won goalie of the year honours in the SIJHL.
His teammates tried to support him by giving him an early lead. Cale David converted a pass from Boyer at 2:25 of the opening period for his first goal since being signed from the Selkirk Steelers of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League two weeks ago.
But the Stars fought back when Bruno set up Atkins for a short-handed goal at 11:36 to tie the game.
The opening minute of the second period was not one of the Thunder’s finest moments.
Mike Krelove, who had the overtime winner against Borderland here eight days earlier, scored 11 seconds into the period and was quickly followed by Atkins with his second of the game at the 34-second mark.
The third period was devoid of goals, but not hot-tempered intensity which reached its boiling point at 9:27.
Eight of the 10 skaters on the ice at that point got into a mix-up that saw Councillor and Lockman kicked out of the game.
Thunder defencemen David Gooch and Ryan Mayman given minors and 10-minute misconducts that ultimately finished their evenings, as well.