Thunder lose a close one to first-place team

Jeff Helsdon, Editor

What an exciting game in the Thunderdome last Saturday. The first place Seaforth Centenaires were in town looking for revenge on their previous 3-2 loss to the Tillsonburg Thunder in October.

The first period set the tone of the game with no scoring. Both tenders were outstanding with Ben Blacker stopping all 17 shots for Tillsonburg and Seaforth tender Alex Hutcheson stopping a huge breakaway. The Thunder drew first blood, with Kurtis Heggie from Braden Roberts opened the scoring at 19:27 of the second with a shot from the point right along the ice through a maze of skates that found the back of the net. The rest of the shots werer stopped on both ends in the second period.

Seaforth evened it up at 19:15 of the third, and then slid a second in at 13:16 that just squeaked through Blacker’s pads on a right wing rush. Two empty net goals sealed the Thunder’s fate.

Although the Thunder are working incredibly hard, and certainly never giving in to any of the top teams in the OEHL, the hockey gods are not relenting with a lucky bounce or greasy goal. The Thunder has also been struck with the Injury bug as Thunder Captain Justin Abraham went down with a knee injury in this game. The Thunder have been in every game that they fell short on. But the gods taketh and giveth…It is time for the later to kick in.

The Thunder play on the road on Friday at 8:30 against long-time foe Petrolia Squires. As I have said to many fans looking for which game to go on the road with the Thunder on, Petrolia is the place. In Petrolia, it is not a game…it is an adventure.

Saturday night, the Thunder travel to Milverton for a 5:30 p.m. puck drop. The Thunder are looking to stop the skid and start moving up the standings.

The next home game is on December at 7:30 p.m. versus the Delhi Flames. Delhi usually brings a bunch of fans to the Thunderdome so we all have to make sure they do not drown the Thunder fans out.