Chicago sneaks past Thunder in overtime

Posted on September 30, 2016

By WJBC Staff

BLOOMINGTON – The Bloomington Thunder’s rivalry with the Chicago Steel has been nothing but close, and Friday night was no different at U.S. Cellular Coliseum.

For the 12th time in 14 all-time meetings, the game was decided by one goal. But the Thunder (0-1-1-0 overall) fell on the wrong side of that one-goal game in a 3-2 overtime loss to the Steel.

With a little more than one minute left in overtime, Walker Duehr intercepted a pass in the Bloomington defensive zone and then beat Thunder goaltender Logan Halladay (Merrimack College) on the ensuing breakaway to give Chicago (2-0-0-0) the win.

Chicago held the edge throughout the overtime period, outshooting Bloomington 5-1, but the Thunder did have a quality scoring chance earlier in the frame. Ethan Somoza (Bemidji State) had open space in the left circle and blasted a slap shot, but Chicago goaltender Tommy Nappier just managed to get a piece of the puck with his glove to keep the game going.

Bloomington got off to a strong start in the contest, scoring less than five minutes into the first period to take the lead. Sean Harrison (Union College) opened the scoring at the 4:30 mark of the first, as he fired a one-timer past Nappier (25 saves). Cameron Burke (University of Notre Dame) set up the play from behind the net, feeding Harrison between the circles, as he promptly found the back of the net.

It took more than a period, but the Steel finally tied the score more than halfway into the second period. Greg Printz received a pass just to the left of the crease and managed to slide his own rebound past Halladay at the 14:17 mark of the middle period.

Despite suffering the loss in overtime, Halladay was strong in goal in his second start of the year, stopping the first 17 shots he faced before yielding the first goal. The Cary, North Carolina, native finished the night with 32 saves on 34 shots.

Bloomington concludes the home weekend with a matchup on Saturday night against the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders. Faceoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. for Thunder Stick Giveaway Night at the Coliseum, as the first 500 fans through the gates will get their own set of Thunder Sticks.

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