Thunder winless streak reaches six

It’s not a gusher yet, but the Borderland Thunder are searching for ways to stop the bleeding.
The defending SIJHL champs are in the unfamiliar position of looking up at almost the entire league—sitting in fourth place after last weekend’s sweep on the road by the Thunder Bay KC Bulldogs stretched Borderland’s winless skid to six games.
“We’re working towards the end of the season,” Thunder general manager Brent Tookenay said about the team’s current struggles. “We’ll get it turned around.”
The Bulldogs (7-6-1-1) moved past the Thunder (6-7-1) into third place by three points, though having played one more game than Borderland, and now have won four-straight.
The only team trailing the Thunder are the hapless K&A Variety Golden Hawks (1-13-2), who have lost their last nine in a row.
The Dryden Ice Dogs (11-3-3-1) are five points ahead of the second-place Fort William First Nation North Stars (10-4-1), although the Stars hold three games in hand.
Friday night’s 3-1 win by Thunder Bay was all due to a second period featuring the Bulldogs’ ability to capitalize on their few scoring chances—and a red-hot goalie who wouldn’t buckle under the Thunder’s pressure.
After a scoreless opening 20 minutes, the Bulldogs’ Kris King opened the scoring on the power play at 2:51 with Thunder defenceman Charlie Burd in the box for interference.
The Bulldogs’ Ian Dowhos then connected at 6:11, before Alex Barber netted an unassisted marker just over two minutes later to stretch the lead to 3-0.
The three goals came on just eight shots in the period for the Bulldogs while the Thunder were thwarted on all 16 of their shots by Viktor Saari, who is 2-0 this season with a 1.00 goals against average.
Dennis Morrison tried to spark a Thunder rally at 4:41 of the third with his fourth of the season on an unassisted tally that came short-handed as Aaron Boyer served a slashing minor.
But despite a 13-7 shot advantage in the third, and 39-26 for the game, the Thunder were able to inch no closer.
Meanwhile, Saturday’s 5-4 victory by the Bulldogs saw the return of Borderland head coach Dave Allison from a two-game suspension imposed for entering the officials’ room after the Thunder’s 2-1 loss to Dryden on Oct. 29.
His team responded by getting outshot 9-3 in the first period, but scoring the only goal when Kevin Webb collected his team-high 12th of the season on the power play at 11:39.
But the Bulldogs came out snarling in a rough second period, which saw simultaneous fights break out at the 11:30 mark involving King and the Thunder’s Ian Lockman, as well as Borderland’s Sean Councillor and Thunder Bay’s Eric Rice.
Jesse Bedard tied the game at 1:16, then Sean Duffy gave the Bulldogs their first lead of the contest at 3:50.
But Manno Copenace put the Thunder back on even terms with only 23 seconds left in the period, scoring his second of the year on a Borderland power play with Kurt Hogard picking up his second assist of the night.
Bulldogs’ leading scorer Adam Sergerie re-established the Thunder Bay lead with his team-high 11th goal, but Ryan Kramer notched his fourth of the year when he beat Bulldog goalie Joe Shannon short-handed at 4:40 to tie the game 3-3.
Back came Thunder Bay, courtesy of Daryl Goulet’s unassisted marker at 11:39, but Boyer provided Borderland with its third comeback of the night, scoring his sixth at 14:31 with help from Justin Green, who picked up his first point as a member of the Thunder in his third game.
A buzzer-beater by Sergerie to cap his three-point night would be the clincher, though, as his wraparound eluded Thunder goalie Jared Baldwin just as the clock ran out.
Borderland’s protests fell on deaf ears as the officials ruled the clock was allowed to run too long and that the puck actually had crossed the line with one second left.
Baldwin played both games against the Bulldogs as starter Dan Hoehne was kept out of action for precautionary reasons related to a possible concussion.
The Thunder head back to Thunder Bay this weekend for games Friday and Saturday against the North Stars, before returning home next Tuesday (Nov. 18) to face the Ice Dogs.
In related news, Hoehne and Nate Weossner were the first two Thunder players to receive the newly-created series of weekly and monthly honours offered by the SIJHL.
Weossner won the weekly player award for the week ending Oct. 12 while Hoehne was named the league’s top goalie for the week ending Oct. 19.
SIJHL players of the month so far this season have been Fort William forward Steve Atkins (September) and Dryden goalie Liam Johnston (October).