Thunder off to great start

The Borderland Thunder opened a new SIJHL season over the weekend by taking three of four points on the road.
The squad battled to a 1-1 tie against the defending champion Fort William First Nation North Stars on Saturday night, then hung on to beat the K&A Variety Golden Hawks 5-4 yesterday.
Last season, it took the Thunder 12 tries to beat the North Stars and head coach Dave Allison knew going in that Saturday night’s game would be a tough test for his team.
“I believe that the North Stars are one of the better teams in Canada,” Allison had said Friday. “They’ve got a lot guys returning, they’ve got a high skilled team, and our challenge is to continually build on what we’ve got.”
Josh McAndrew netted the lone goal for the Thunder.
“Well, I think we’re all anxious,” Allison had said Friday. “I mean the first game, the first sort of series, is always exciting no matter what league you are, because you don’t know how you’re going to stack up.”
The Thunder not only stacked up well with the North Stars, but continued their solid play the following day with their dramatic win over the Golden Hawks.
The hosts fought back from a 4-1 deficit to tie the game, but first-year player Steve Sus then notched his second of the game to ice the Thunder’s victory.
Also scoring for the Thunder was Kurt Hogard, Dennis Morrison, and McAndrew.
“We had some really good contributions for our older guys and also from the younger guys,” Allison said upon the team’s return last night. “And I think it was a great start to the season for us.”
After a day off from practice today, the Thunder will be back on the ice tomorrow in preparation for their home opener this Friday (OCt. 1) at 7:30 p.m. against those same Golden Hawks.
“We are going to be a work in progress . . . but as long as we work hard, we can figure out what we have to improve upon,” said Allison.
“We’re not too concerned, but I mean we want to work hard, we want to be supportive of each other, and we want to able to figure some stuff out,” he stressed.