By WJBC Staff
DES MOINES, Iowa – Reed Lebster scored twice and the Des Moines Bucaneers struck four times in the third period to upend the Bloomington Thunder, 5-2, on Saturday night at Buccaneer Arena.
Bloomington (18-21-3-2, 41 pts) got goals from Cameron Burke and August von Ungern-Sternberg, but couldn’t withstand a third period barrage from the Western Confernce’s third-place team in the middle game of a three-game weekend.
Although Des Moines (28-14-1-3, 60 pts) took a 1-0 lead into the second period, the Thunder continued to display offensive success in the second period as they have all season. Bloomington, which started the night with a plus-10 goal differential in the middle period, scored twice in the second to take a 2-1 lead to the locker room after two.
For the third consecutive game the Thunder struck short-handed, as Burke got the equalizer with the Thunder on the penalty kill in the early stages of the second. On a two-on-two rush into the offensive zone, Burke carried to the left circle and snapped a wrist shot past Buccaneers goaltender Jan Ruzicka to tie the score at one at the 2:23 mark of the middle frame.
The Thunder then took the lead at even strength as von Ungern-Sternberg netted his third in as many games to make it 2-1. Following a drop pass from Mitchell Chaffee, Mitchell Mattson fired a shot from the right circle that was stopped by Ruzicka. But von Ungern-Sternberg was there to clean up the rebound for his ninth tally of the season.
Des Moines tied the score only 4 minutes, 4 seconds into the third period, as Matt Hudie managed to beat Gabe Mollot-Hill from the right point. Lebster netted his second of the night just 1:09 later to give the Buccaneers the lead for good, which was followed by a goal from Collin Rutherford and an empty-net tally by Cameron Orchard.
The Thunder conclude the three-game weekend with the series finale against the Des Moines Buccaneers on Sunday at 3:05.
