LINCOLN, NE – The Bloomington Thunder stood toe to toe with the Lincoln Stars at the Ice Box Friday night but just came short in the back and forth 3-2 affair. Bloomington falls to 11-13-4 on the season while the Stars grab their ninth win in 27 games this season.
A physical first period opened the game as both teams attempted to asserted their physical dominance early. Bloomington would surrender the first goal but were able to tally on their first power play under a minute later to tie it up. Shane Bednard (Bowling Green State University) grabbed his third point in two games at 10:27. The goal, which ripped over the goaltender Cam Hackett, gave Bednard his team leading fifth power play goal of the season on a pass from Jalen Smereck.
Assistant Coach for the Thunder Dan Jewell saw the physical battle but also noted that the team came up just short in that category during the game. “A tighter building like this we knew that it was going to be a physical game but I don’t think we matched it at portions of the night so that’s how it resulted,” said Jewell.
Bloomington would head to the room 1-1 after going 1-2 on the power play and 1-1 on the kill.
Lincoln was able to tally early in the second after the puck took a crazy bounce and found the back of the net at 1:55. Ludvig Hoff got his second of the night and sixth of the season to take the lead.
Bloomington answered later in the period as Jake Slaker poked the puck away from the Stars defender and fed his line-mate Tarek Baker (University of Minnesota). Baker grabbed his fourth of the season to tie the game at two at 9:56.
Despite outshooting the Stars in the period 12-8 the Thunder would head to the intermission down by one. A power play goal was tipped in by Lincoln’s Biagio Lerario to give the Stars the 3-2 lead.
“We created some opportunities for ourselves late and had some power plays. Sometimes you don’t get the puck to bounce in the right direction but again it was just a little bit too late,” said Jewell. “If we create more of those chances over 60 minutes then maybe those go in for us.”
Bloomington came close in the third to tying the game but could not crack Hackett on 11 shots in the period and 31 in the game. The Thunder had some chances down low including power plays in the final 5:00 and 18 seconds but were unable to tie the game. Thunder went 1-5 on the power play grabbing goals on the man advantage in back to back games. Bloomington’s David Jacobson recorded 21 saves in the loss as the Thunder now head to Cedar Rapids to take on the RoughRiders Saturday night in game three of their four-game series.
"We have to play a full game tomorrow, that is the biggest thing. If we play the full 60 then we have a shot on any given night and that was proved the last time we went to Cedar Rapids. Hopefully we can do the same and play with tempo, energy, and physicality early in the game,” said Jewell looking to tomorrow's game.
