By WJBC Staff
SIOUX FALLS, South Dakota – Seven games in a row, the result has been the same for the Bloomington Thunder who shutout the Sioux Falls Stampede 3-0 on Tuesday night.
The Thunder (15-8-2-1) beat the reigning Clark Cup Champion Stampede (16-11-0-1) in front of 7, 200 strong at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center. The Stampede drop their four game win streak and are halted at second place in the Western Conference, while the Thunder are in fourth place in the Eastern Conference behind the top three teams in the USHL.
Logan Halladay was tested with 20 shots on net in the game including two breakaways in the second period. The second year goaltender from Cary, NC pitched his first career shutout and extended his personal win streak to three straight games. He was named the number one star of the game after outdueling Stefanos Lekkas.
“It was a great road win, we played well. Hally was solid in net. Our power play unfortunately didn’t click the way we wanted, but our penalty kill was good and we had some great blocks at the end of the game,” Said Thunder Head Coach and General Manager Dennis Williams. “When you come into an environment like this in the Western Conference and win it makes me proud of our effort. It isn’t easy to come into that building and win.”
Vlad Dzhioshvili opened the scoring in the first period to give the Thunder a 1-0 lead. The Moscow, RUS native, netted his second goal in as many games hustling to a loose puck off a dump in by Blake Gober. The puck bounced off the wall and came to the rookie forward for the one timer. It was his third of the season and came at 8:04 of the opening period.
The Thunder would open the second period with a shortened 5-on-3 power play, but could not extend the lead. They would surrender two chances to the Stampede on the man advantage however; their fourth ranked penalty kill stopped the herd in their tracks through three chances. Overall, both team’s were unsuccessful on the power play, both going 0-for-5 in the game.
Lawton Courtnall and Parker Tuomie each were denied by Halladay in the period who was unfazed to the Stampede through two periods.
On the team’s speed and quickness tonight, Coach Williams said, “It came in waves. We came out alright in the first, but didn’t manage the puck well. We had some turnovers that resulted in scoring chances for them. Fortunately with the way Logan played tonight, making some breakaway saves, he helped us out.
“In the second period, there were about seven minutes without a whistle and we were moving,” he continued. “We were really skating and trapping them in the zone. It was a really gutsy team effort and one that I am proud of.”
To open the third period, Halladay again came up huge on a back door chance, stacking the pads and stopping the play. On the next face off, the Thunder went down the ice and made it 2-0. Alec Mehr was on the backdoor for a pass from Steven Merl and netted his second goal of the season at 3:35. Later, the Thunder would hold off the empty net charge by the Stampede and a power play chance. Capping the night was Jake Durflinger with his eighth goal of the year to ice the game for the Thunder.
For the second straight game, the Thunder beat their opponent by more than one goal. This is the third shutout of the season for the Thunder who are the third best team at keeping the puck out of the net.
“We came out here with the mindset of getting four points and we are still on track for that, but Cedar Rapids is one of the top teams in the East. We go from one of the top teams in the West to the top team in the East so tomorrow should be a really good test for us,” concluded the Thunder Head Coach.
Bloomington heads to Cedar Rapids, Iowa to wrap up the 2015 calendar year with a 7:05 p.m. game. The RoughRiders (16-7-2-0) and Thunder will face off with the top team in the Eastern Conference for the final time this season.
