Marinette Youth Hockey Association

The Thunder played well for stretches during the day, but first-day penalties plagued the Thunder who spent 37 minutes and 30 seconds in the box in the two games.

“I thought we played well at times and we were getting after it, but there were other times where we just kind of fell off,” commented coach Fred Haley. 

Damien Winterbottom got the Thunder on the board first when he broke away from the Soo back line and scored unassisted midway through the opening period.

The Thunder outplayed the Soo in that opening frame, and goalie Glenn Woodworth made Winterbottom’s goal stand up for a 1-0 lead at the first intermission.

Play got more physical in the second period. The Soo tied the game midway through the period with a goal from Stephen Allen before the floodgates opened in the closing minutes. Four goals in the last three minutes of the frame put the home team firmly in control at 5-1.

Last year’s leading scorer, Blue Haley, picked up three penalties in the first two periods and was tagged with a roughing penalty early in the third period which eliminated him from play for the remainder of the day.

Neither team found the net in the third period and the Soo came away with a 5-1 win.

In the afternoon contest, the teams combined for 21 penalties.

“The second game we started a little slow, but I like the way we played after that,” Haley said. “The penalties definitely didn’t help. It’s hard being down a guy pretty much the entire game. It’s going to be tough to win any games like that. We need to clean up our act and play with a little more aggression as far as getting after the puck.”

After the Soo took a 2-0 lead in the first period, Theron Thayer got the Thunder on the board with an assist from Abigail Aftanas early in the second. Caiden Radtke tied the contest off an assist from Winterbottom with 6:58 to play in the second.

The Soo came back with two goals in the third period to seal a 4-2 win.

“We know what to work on now,” Haley said, “so we will get a practice plan together and see what we can do from here.”

The Thunder will play at Manitowoc on Friday. Game time is scheduled for 5 p.m.