Thunder split one-goal decisions

Whether sitting in the press box or roaming behind the bench, Dave Allison got a stiff cardiac workout from his team this weekend.
The Borderland Thunder head coach’s heart had to be worn out after his team went to the wire on consecutive nights on the road against the Thunder Bay Downtown Volkswagen Bulldogs while splitting their two-game series.
Matt Johnson scored the winner at 4:09 of overtime as the Thunder edged the Bulldogs 2-1 on Friday evening.
Chad Baldwin had the other goal for the Thunder (24-8-5-1), who outshot their hosts 57-35, while Brian Dzijak replied for the Bulldogs (20-14-3-2).
Allison watched Friday night’s game from above while serving his one-game suspension for verbal abuse of an official following the Thunder’s 2-2 tie with the Fort William First Nation Wolves here Jan. 25.
The suspension was trimmed from the original four games handed out by the SIJHL for the incident because league commissioner Harvey Fedell said referee Andrew Brewer’s report of the situation didn’t appear to reflect what actually happened.
With Allison back behind the bench Saturday night, the Thunder looked to have the sweep locked up with a 4-3 lead in the final three minutes of regulation time.
But John Antoniak tied it for the Bulldogs at 17:41, then Dzijak netted the game-winner with 53 seconds to play to drop the Thunder’s record against the Bulldogs this season to 6-5-1, including 2-4 in Thunder Bay.
Lloyd Stansell, Rylan Vesa, and Adam Fabiano had the other markers for the Bulldogs while goalie Bill Gerry made 44 saves for the home side.
Johnson scored twice for the Thunder, with Josh Baxter and A.J. Tucker adding singles. Three of the four goals came on the power play.
On the injury front, forward Aaron Grynol missed both games with a re-aggravation of the shoulder injury that had kept him out of the team’s first 33 games.
Meanwhile, Johnson was knocked out of Saturday’s game in the second period, hitting his head on the ice after being brought down by a Bulldogs’ defender.
Both are expected to return to the line-up this week.
The three-point weekend (they got one point for losing in overtime) pulled the second-place Bulldogs to within eight of the league-leading Thunder, who hold one game in hand on the Thunder Bay squad.
In related news, the Thunder also announced the re-signing of forward Rob Scales, who had notched six goals and eight points in 26 games with the team before being released at the Canadian Junior ‘A’ Hockey League signing deadline of Jan. 10.
Scales played in Friday’s opener, but sat out with an undisclosed injury Saturday.
The Thunder return to action Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m. at the Ice for Kids Arena versus the defending champion Dryden Ice Dogs.