OT win ends Thunder skid

On the one month anniversary of their last victory, the Borderland Thunder gave their fans a taste of that old winning feeling again in dramatic fashion here last night.
Dave Gooch converted his own rebound at 3:34 of overtime to give the defending SIJHL champs a desperately-needed 6-5 triumph over the Dryden Ice Dogs to end their losing skid at four games and their winless drought at eight.
The Thunder almost squandered their chance to shed their shackles of struggle—frittering away an extended two-man advantage in the third trailing by a goal and then a four-minute power play with the score tied.
But Gooch corralled the original shot of Kevin Webb, who had four points in the game, and took two cracks at the puck before tucking it past Ice Dogs goalie Liam Johnston for his third of the season to send the Thunder faithful home with grins on their faces.
Webb collected his 15th and 16th goals in the win, with Nate Weossner picking up his eighth and ninth. Andrew Dault netted the tying goal at 13:31 of the third.
Jared Baldwin stopped 28 shots to improve his record to 2-3.
Weossner was in the line-up despite a shoulder injury suffered Saturday. The Thunder also welcomed back defenceman Andrew Perrault, who had missed three weeks with a knee injury, and forward Ian Lockman, who had missed the weekend’s action with a groin problem.
Tyler Desjarlais had a three-point night for the Ice Dogs, including a pair of goals, with Pat Selin, Matt Ringheim, and Mike MacIntyre adding singles.
Colten Steinhoff—acquired from the Fort William First Nation North Stars on Monday in a cash transaction—played his first game with the Thunder last night.
The forward had three goals and six assists in 15 games with Fort William this season.
After a difficult weekend on the road in Thunder Bay, in which they were swept by the host North Stars, winning had almost become a secondary consideration to just being able to put together enough bodies in time for the opening face-off.
“The guys are playing hard,” said Thunder head coach Dave Allison. “It’s a different style of team than last year. We don’t have the consistent offensive punch from [forwards] one through four that we did.
“I do believe that will come in time.
“You can’t fault the effort, but we’re not getting that timely save or that timely goal when we need it,” Allison remarked. “There’s a process in place, though, that will help us reap rewards down the road.”
The first period of Friday night’s 8-5 loss to the North Stars was a ping-pong match, with both teams taking turns wresting the momentum from each other’s grasp.
Webb scored 55 seconds into the game—only to have Cory Bruno of the Stars respond just under a minute later to tie things up.
Brian Ross scored the first of two Fort William power-play goals in the game, cashing in at 7:08 with Borderland’s Aaron Boyer serving a hooking penalty.
Webb set up Brent Olson for his second of the season at 9:30, followed by Kory McEwan putting Fort William on top again at 11:32. Dennis Morrison closed the action-packed period with his fifth of the year at 15:31 to pull the Thunder even.
Nathan Bruekelman turned things in favour of the North Stars for the rest of the night as his marker at 13:14 of the second was the first of five-straight goals by Fort William.
Then, with two seconds left in the period, Steve Atkins delivered a crushing blow with his goal to make it 5-3.
Matt Heerema, Matt Miller (power play), and Atkins with his second of the game upped the lead to 8-3 by 12:27 of the third, bringing an abrupt end to the Thunder debut of goalie Joe Bergman, who was signed from the roster of the Southeast Blades of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League.
He was replaced by Fort Frances Midget ‘AA’ Canadians call-up Mark Buist, who stopped all three shots he faced. Buist had to take the place of Baldwin for the weekend series so that the Thunder’s ratio of import players didn’t exceed league-imposed limits.
A Drew Fisher tally (his second) and Morrison’s second of the contest made the score more respectable, but it wasn’t nearly enough as Stars’ goalie Daniel Beardy made 22 stops in improving his season record to 8-1.
Forward Cole Hayward, who was signed as a free agent last week and played with the Thunder in their inaugural season, got his money’s worth in his Borderland debut—racking up 27 penalty minutes.
The North Stars then made it back-to-back wins—and 11 victories in 12 starts at home—with a 6-2 win Saturday night.
Miller potted a pair of goals in 27 seconds midway through the first period to get Fort William off on the right foot. But 17 seconds after his second tally, Eric Schultz got the Thunder back in the game at the 12:08 mark with his fourth of the year.
Boyer squared the contest at 3:32 of the second with his seventh of the season, but a rash of Thunder penalties soon after sent their victory plans down the drain.
With Borderland trying to kill off a lengthy two-man disadvantage, Ryan Baird fired a power-play goal behind Bergman for the eventual game-winning goal.
McEwan beat Bergman at 16:16 of the second to make it 4-2 after 40 minutes. He then rattled the mesh behind Bergman nine seconds into the third on another Stars’ power-play.
Bruno netted one 1:21 later to cap the scoring.
The third degenerated into what Allison called a “Slap Shot mentality” as 165 minutes in penalties were handed out.
Fort William is a perfect 4-0 against the Thunder this season, outscoring Borderland 23-10 over that span.
The Thunder will get a much-needed opportunity to clear out their sick bay as their Nov. 26 clash with the Ice Dogs up in Dryden is their only game in the next 15 days.
Borderland’s next home games are Dec. 5-6 against Fort William.