By WJBC Staff
BLOOMINGTON – The Bloomington Thunder faced an early barrage of shots from the Tri-City Storm and could not even the score as they fell in game two of their home and home by the score of 6-2.
The Thunder fall to 12-16-5 on the season and move to Muskegon on Monday for their third game in three days.
“It started from the first shift and the energy right from the start was not where we needed it to be, said Thunder Assistant Coach Dan Jewell after the game. "A couple bad bounces and goals put them up 3-0 and against a good team like that, it's something that we cant afford to do.”
The Thunder entered the first period trying to ride the momentum of Saturday night but the Storm had a different plan. They scored three goals in the first 6:15 including a goal by Jake Wahlin (St. Cloud State) just 11 seconds after Mason Appleton (Western Michigan University) made it 2-0. Logan Halladay (University of Minnesota) made an early exit with seven saves on ten shots as Hayden Lavigne (University of Michigan) came in relief and eventually made 20 saves on 23 shots in the game.
Coach Jewell discussed the caliber of Tri-City's depth saying, "When they start to gain momentum in the offensive zone they can be deadly. We just needed to do a little better job of tracking and be more physical in our defensive zone to be more successful.”
The second period saw more opportunities for the Thunder but they could not crack goaltender Jared Rutledge who made 14 saves through two periods and a game total of 23. Tri-City picked up another goal to extend their lead but were held to only six shots in the period after a first period total of 19.
The Thunder were 0-5 on the power play but were excellent at staying out of the box and stopped the Storms top rated power play on three opportunities while holding the leagues second leading goal scorer off the board.
In the third period, the Storm lead proved too much to overcome but the Thunder did manage to gain some momentum into their Monday afternoon game against the Muskegon Lumberjacks. Matt Mendelson (Penn State University) scored his sixth goal of the season and Jack Jenkins tallied his seventh in the third. Tri-City potted a goal in the third to make it a 6-2 final score.
“It is gut check time for us now, it’s simple as that," said Jewell. "We have a 12 o’ clock start tomorrow with a four and a half hour bus trip ahead of us. It will be a testament to these guys and what they can do. If we come out with jump and energy, it says a lot about them and a lot about us as a team.”
Bloomington will now travel to Muskegon for a 11:15 a.m. game with the Lumberjacks. This will be the Thunders second three in three of the season.
