Thunder look to cement lead against Ice Dogs

The Borderland Thunder will look to cement their lead atop the Superior International Junior Hockey League tonight when the struggling Dryden Ice Dogs come to town.
Borderland (23-8-8) is nine points up on the second-place Ice Dogs (19-12-7) with about 10 games left in the regular season.
“We’re not going to change anything and just play the same way we have been,” Thunder head coach Wayne Strachan said. “To go up two more [points] definitely helps. It’s a big opportunity.”
Game time is 7:30 p.m. at the Ice for Kids Arena.
But if last Wednesday’s game up in Dryden (a 3-1 Thunder win) is any indication, tonight’s showdown could be another rough-and-tumble affair.
A series of second-period fights last week also means the Thunder will be missing two players tonight.
Defenceman Clayton Windego will serve an automatic one-game suspension for getting involved in his third fight of the season while forward Ian Lockman will sit out one game for being the third man in during last week’s melee.
Goalie Rob Hrabec, who was ejected from the game last Wednesday for checking from behind, did not receive a suspension and will start in goal for the Thunder tonight.
Meanwhile, Dryden forward Mike English was slapped with a five-game suspension for his actions and won’t play tonight.
Since losing top spot to the Thunder last month, the Ice Dogs have dropped five of their last six games (including three to the Thunder).
They’re also coming off a pair of losses to the Thunder Bay KC Bulldogs over the weekend in which assistant coaches Randy Allen and Warren Bruetsch were behind the bench for recently-departed head coach Al Trotz.
Trotz resigned from the team last Thursday, confirmed team president Bob Rankin this morning. Dryden’s new head coach is Larry Wintoneak, who coached the Flin Flon Bombers (Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League) last year. He’ll be behind the bench tonight.
In related news, Thunder centre Kevin Webb netted nine points in three games to earn a three-way share of offensive player-of-the-week honours with the Bulldogs’ Trevor Karasiewicz and Naaman Cooper of the Feathermen Hawks.
Webb, the SIJHL’s leading scorer, is on a 14-game points scoring streak during which he has racked up 31 points (16 goals/15 assists).