Firsts for Conger, Merl in Thunder win

Posted on March 8, 2015

By Thunder Staff

Bloomington, IL – The Bloomington Thunder again used special teams to their advantage and picked up a 4-2 win over the Madison Capitols in Saturday nights game from the U.S. Cellular Coliseum.

The game kicked off a home and home with the Capitols and put the Thunder up to 22-20-7 on the season and 3-0-0 on the season series.

Bloomington managed to fire 46 shots on net including a two period total of 37 in route to their second straight win. They trail the Muskegon Lumberjacks and the Dubuque Fighting Saints by nine points for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

Just like their last game against the Chicago Steel, an affiliate player helped start the scoring as Bailey Conger (St. Lawrence University) scored a goal in his United States Hockey League debut. The goal was then matched just 40 seconds later at 8:47 by Freddy Gerard (Ohio State University) who score his 14th of the season. Two more goals were put in by the Thunder to end the first. Steven Merl continued the firsts for Bloomington, grabbing his first goal with his new team and chased goaltender Garrett Metcalf from the game with 12 saves through 12 minutes of work. Then Jake Slaker who earned the first star, scored at 17:18 to make it 3-1 with a power play goal. He would later turn in an assist and being one of three Thunder players to have a multi-point game

In the second, Ryan Galt (University of Nebraska-Omaha) found a juicy rebound from Nikolas Koberstein’s (University of Alaska-Fairbanks) shot on the power play and worked it past goaltender Darren Smith (Ferris State). The Thunder went 2-3 on the power play. Their only blemish on five penalty kills came at 18:16 on a 5-on-3 goal by Daniel Willett. The defenseman potted his sixth of the year to cut the lead in half.

Bloomington opened the third with another goal to extend their lead. Playing the puck in front on a 2-on-1, Van Barr (Western Michigan University) connected with Matt Mendelson (Penn State University) who tipped it in at 6:50. Mendelson continues to lead the team in points with 34 (13g, 21a) on the season. Tommy Muck managed to score one with under three to play but the goal was not enough to start a comeback.

Thunder goaltender Hayden Lavigne (University of Michigan) rebounded in a big way, stopping 29 shots to earn his 13th win of the season and eighth with the Thunder.

Sunday, the Thunder head to Madison to take on the Capitols for the fourth and final time in a 3:00 pm CST game.

BOX SCORE

Next Home Game: Bloomington is back at the U.S. Cellular Coliseum on Friday, March 13th for Mystery Giveaway Night. Bloomington welcomes the United States National Team Development Program for the first time in Bloomington. The top NHL draft prospects will face off with the Bloomington Thunder at 7:00 pm CST in their second meeting of the season. Head to BloomingtonThunder.com or call the Thunder office at (309) 434-2980 for tickets and information.

 

Social Media: Follow the Thunder on social using our handle @BLMThunder

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