Thunder defence shines to take pair from Bulldogs

The Borderland Thunder used strong defence against the Thunder Bay KC Bulldogs’ top guns to earn 3-2 and 5-3 wins in Superior International Junior Hockey League action here over the weekend.
The Bulldogs’ top line of Tyler Bruno, Brian Dzijak, and Trevor Karasiewicz combined for only four points against the Thunder, who now have won seven games in a row.
“We tried to put our defensive line [Josh Baxter, Dallas Mosbeck, and Ryan Hilfer] as much as we could against them,” Thunder head coach Wayne Strachan noted.
“For the most part, everyone did a good job,” he added.
Bulldogs head coach Brian Vescio said Bruno was hurt and barely had a chance to play with his linemates. The trio is the top scoring line in the SIJHL, combining for 199 points and holding three of the top four scoring spots (Borderland’s Kevin Webb is second overall with 68 points).
“If we had them for six periods, it may have been a different story but that’s the way it goes. The Thunder played well,” Vescio said. “We didn’t have things together this weekend.”
With six games to go, the Thunder sit 12 points ahead of the second-place Feathermen Hawks (22-12-4) and 15 up on the Dryden Ice Dogs (19-14-7), who have slipped into third place.
The Bulldogs (20-16-3) are in fourth but only two points behind Dryden.
If the Thunder clinch first place, they’ll meet the fourth-place team in the best-of-seven semi-finals next month, with second place playing third in the other series.
The two winners then will meet in the best-of-seven SIJHL final.
Justin Bodnarchuk and Webb scored in the first seven minutes to give the Thunder an early 2-0 lead over the Bulldogs in Saturday night’s game.
Chad Baldwin’s 14th of the season was sandwiched between a pair of goals by Karasiewicz to give the Thunder a 3-2 lead after one.
Jay Philips slapped a point shot past Ryan O’Gorman in the second, then Matt Johnson put in a Boomer Redford rebound on the power play in the third to give the Thunder a 5-2 lead.
Derek Hosanna scored with five minutes to go but that was as close as the Bulldogs would get.
A night earlier, the Thunder were staked to a 3-1 lead after two periods on goals by Ian Lockman, Webb, and Johnson. Goalie Rob Hrabec stopped 39 of 41 shots to preserve the win.
The wins also improved the Thunder’s mark to 15-1-5 at the Ice for Kids Arena.
“The boys played pretty good defence. I wouldn’t say we played our best, but we came out with the four points,” said Strachan.
Elsewhere in the SIJHL over the weekend, the Hawks beat the Thunder Bay Snowplowing Wolves twice by scores of 9-3 and 3-0.
In related news, Thunder defenceman David Lloyd was named SIJHL defensive player player-of-the-week. The Emo native has one goal and 19 assists this season.
Karasiewicz (Bulldogs) earned offensive player-of-the-week honours.