Thunder bitten by Ice Dogs

With 10 days between games, the Borderland Thunder had plenty of time to rest up their trigger fingers.
Now, they’ll spend the next 10 days adjusting their rifle scopes.
The defending SIJHL champion Thunder (1-2) fired 55 shots at Dryden Ice Dogs goalie Liam Johnston in their first game since Sept. 20. But the young netminder survived the target practice and helped Dryden (2-2-1) nip the Thunder 4-3 last night at the Ice for Kids Arena.
Although they’ve lost two of their first three games after starting last season with an 8-0-2 mark, Thunder head coach Dave Allison is far from ready to send up the emergency flares.
“I think in all three games, we’ve done a lot of really good things,” he remarked. “Our kids battled right to the end tonight. I think the things we have to correct are very correctable.
“I like our enthusiasm, I like our physical play,” he added. “I really like the way we came out tonight after the 10-day layoff.”
Dennis Morrison had the lone goal of the opening period as the rugged Thunder forward converted an Aaron Boyer feed at 4:10 for a 1-0 advantage.
Dryden’s Joel Poshtar and Borderland’s Clayton Windigo traded power-play goals in the second to make it 2-1 for the Thunder entering the final stanza.
But the Ice Dogs came out snorting in the third as Mike MacIntyre tied it at the 46-second mark, followed by Pat Selin’s tally 25 seconds later to put Dryden in front for the first time.
Tyler MacDonald then netted a power-play goal of his own at 4:26 to increase the lead to 4-2.
While Brent Olson’s marker at 7:26 brought the Thunder closer, the home side couldn’t beat Johnston down the stretch.
The schedule-makers have made life easy early on for the Thunder as they now enter a second-consecutive 10-day break before their next games Oct. 10-11 here against the K&A Variety Golden Hawks.
“The good thing about is it will give us a chance to improve our standards and get our consistency to where we want it,” said Allison. “We’re headed in the right direction.”
The Thunder also announced the signing of forward Jordan Murray, who played at the Midget ‘AAA’ level in Edmonton last season. He is expected to join the team for the two-game set against the Hawks.