By WJBC Staff
CHICAGO – The Thunder scored their first overtime winner to take a 3-2 win on the road against the Chicago Steel Friday night. Jeremy Davies (Northeastern University) was the hero for the Thunder in the win, netting the game winner from just above the crease. Bloomington has played in five overtime games over their last six games winning their last two games in extra time. Bloomington (8-6-3) is in second place in the Eastern Conference, while Chicago (5-9-3) is in eighth place above Team USA.
First period was scoreless thanks to even play by the goaltenders Hayden Lavigne (University of Michigan) and John Lethemon (Michigan State University) who made 24 and 35 saves respectively in the game. Bloomington had chances early from Bailey Conger (St. Lawrence University) and Ethan Somoza (Bemidji State University), but couldn’t bury any on the Steel netminder who made 11 saves in the period. The Steel turned on the offense and matched the Thunder’s 11 shots in the period. Lavigne stood tall for the Thunder answering on all Steel shots through 20 minutes of penalty free hockey.
The second period gave the Thunder more momentum as they fired 13 shots on Lethemon. The Steel were the first to strike as Tanner Laczynski (Ohio State University) netted his third of the season six minutes into the middle period. Then the Thunder took control.
With their lone power play of the game, Bloomington took the momentum with a shorthanded save from Lavigne and a one-timer opportunity. They followed up the power play with a goal five minutes later. Jake Slaker (St. Lawrence University) took a 2-on-1 and played the shot off the pad of Lethemon. The rebound came right to Mitchell Chaffee who scored his fourth goal of the season to tie the game.
Bloomington had took over the lead in the third when Pat Curry dug the puck out of the corner and fired a low angle shot to the back of the net. The puck snuck through the five hole of Lethemon just over six minutes in. Two minutes later, the Steel tied it on a turnover. Leading scorer Jake Jaremko (Minnesota State University-Mankato) netted his 11th of the season on the power play with the assist going to Marcel Godbout.
In overtime, the Thunder netted the game winner as Davies crossed in front of the net. He forced Lethemon to go down and then put it just under the cross bar for the Thunder’s second win in three games.
The Steel were 1-1 on the power play as the Thunder were 0-2 on the man advantage. In the win, Bloomington took 39 shots to 25 of the Steel.
