Jenkins with six-point weekend as the Thunder sweep

Posted on January 25, 2015

The Thunder swept team USA over the weekend.(WJBC/File Photo)

By Brian Tosti, Bloomington Thunder Hockey

Ann Arbor, MI – The sweep was on for the Bloomington Thunder against the United States National Team Development Program Under 17 team and the Thunder completed it with a 4-1 win at the Ann Arbor Ice Cube. Jack Jenkins finished the weekend with six points (3g, 3a) including a two point night for the Thunder along with Logan Lambdin and Blake Gober.

A scoreless, yet effective first period for Bloomington ended in the first with shots in favor of the Thunder 8-5. Nikolas Koberstein (Montreal Canadiens, University of Alaska-Fairbanks) had the best defensive play for the Thunder in the period as he slid to block a backdoor pass from Clayton Keller (Boston University) on a USA 2-on-1. The leading scorer was denied along with any other opportunities, as the goaltenders were perfect through the first 20 minutes.

In the second, Bloomington turned up the heat and put a season high of 22 shots on net. Three snuck past goaltender Jake Ottinger, who made 34 saves in the loss. Jenkins continued to pick up points with an assist on Lambdin’s power play goal to make it 1-0 and then an unassisted goal of his own. Gober then grabbed the third goal for the Thunder at 16:14 of the period with assists going to Ryan Siroky (Miami University) and Koberstein. Logan Halladay (University of Minnesota) finished two periods with a game high of 13 saves including point blank chances for the U17’s.

The only goal for Team USA would come at 7:52 of the third period and also on a 5-on-3 power play chance. Nick Pastujov (University of Michigan) picked up the goal to make it 3-1. Halladay would finish the game with 24 saves the win for the Thunder. Gober would tally the empty netter to seal the game and Lambdin grabbed the unselfish assist along with linemate Jake Slaker.

Though there were 54 minutes in penalties handed out in the game, the Thunder had just one chance on the power play and were 2-3 on the kill. With six points this weekend, Bloomington improves to 15-16-6 with 36 points on the year, just four behind Madison and six outside of the fourth playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.  They head to Fargo to take on the Force in a two game set on Friday and Saturday January 30th & 31st.

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