Thunder end on winning note

The Borderland Thunder had a busy weekend, hosting two games against the KC Bulldogs on Friday and Saturday before celebrating the end of the regular season with their annual awards banquet Sunday.
The Thunder won both games— 5-4 on Friday and 4-1 on Saturday— to finish in third place with 55 points.
They’ll open the best-of-seven SIJHL semi-finals this Friday and Saturday against the second-place Dryden Ice Dogs up there.
Games 3 and 4 will be here March 19-20.
“All you’ve got to do is win eight more times to have a chance at North Bay and then who knows?” said Thunder head coach Dave Allison, referring to the Dudley Hewitt provincial showdown which Borderland hosted last year.
On Friday night, Justin Green (Andrew Perrault/Nate Weossner) got things going for the Thunder less than two minutes in.
Then Andrew Dault (Steve Mc- Leod) netted his 11th of the campaign five minutes later before Kevin Webb added two before the period ended.
Ian Lockman and David Gooch drew assists on Webb’s first goal while Aaron Boyer and Justin Green assisted on the other.
The Bulldogs scored twice in the third period, sandwiched around a goal by Rob Scales (Dault/ McLeod).
Dan Hoehne, who shared team MVP honours with Webb, stopped 35 shots for the win.
“He’s been the best goaltender in the league for two years,” Allison said at Sunday’s banquet.
Kyle Schroder (Scales/P.J. Stodgell) started things off for Borderland in Saturday night’s contest, with Green (Kramer/Gooch) and Webb (Olson/Stodgell) adding goals in the second.
The teams traded goals in the third. Scales, named the team’s most dedicated player of the year, scored his ninth from Schroder and Kurt Hogard on the power play at 14:49.
Cale David left the game in the second with a game misconduct for interference from the bench.
Sean Councillor also was handed a game misconduct for checking from behind.
Mike Downer got the win between the pipes, stopping 43 shots. The Thunder fired 42 shots on Bulldogs goalie Steve Hamel.
In other SIJHL news, the Thunder Bay Chronicle Journal reported Saturday that the last-place K&A Variety Golden Hawks decided to disband the team and forfeit their last two regular-season games, with owner Bill McLaurin saying he won’t even consider returning to the league next season.
The SIJHL has not yet made an official announcement on this development.