Thunder head into break on high note

Christmas arrived early for the Borderland Thunder, who headed into a three-week break on a high note with a weekend sweep of the KC Bulldogs here.
The SIJHL’s last-place team did make the Thunder work Friday night, sending the game to overtime before Riley Dudar, assisted by Andrew Dault and Kurt Hogard, scored 2:31 into the extra time for the narrow 5-4 victory.
It was Dudar’s second goal of the night. Derek Fisher, Hogard, and Dault also scored for the Thunder, with assists going to Ryan Mayman, Ian Lockman, Morgan Cakalla, Tyler Barker, Scott Bridgeman, and Dault.
Tyler Gordon, who had a rare off-day in goal, got the victory as he stopped nine of the Bulldogs’ 13 shots. The Thunder, meanwhile, fired 43 shots at the visitor’s goalie.
“The last two times we played them, they took us to overtime,” noted Hogard. “They can sneak up on you.
“If you fall asleep for five minutes, they can score a couple of goals on you,” Hogard added, who also said the team was looking for “redemption” on Saturday to show that Friday’s game should not have been as close as it was.
And that’s just what they did—cruising to a 12-1 win to sweep the series and improve their league record to 21-4-1—four points behind the front-running Fort William First Nation North Stars.
“You’re always trying to get your team to understand that there is a right and wrong way to play, and you’ve got to play with some patterns,” said Thunder head coach Dave Allison.
“You just want them to play hard. And if you’re going to play, you might as well play well,” he added.
By the end of the night, 23 different Thunder players had registered at least one point while nine players left the game with at least two.
The Thunder took 53 shots in the win while the Bulldogs took a surprising 29 on Gordon, who boosted his record to 15-3-1 and retained his ranking as the SIJHL’s second-best goalie.
“I thought we did some good things today [Saturday],” said Allison. “Right now we’re just looking to make some plays, to have some skill, to have some awareness, because that’s the next step.
“You’ve got to be able to do things at a high pace, and the value of practice is what we’re trying to get across,” he added.
The Thunder don’t resume action until Jan. 7-8, when they host the K&A Variety Golden Hawks.
“There’s a few days for relaxing and having a good time with your friends, but you can still always go to the gym at home and stay in shape, and go skating,” noted Dudar.
“And when we come back, we’ll have to work really hard to get back into game shape,” he added.