Thunder opened their NIHL 2 South campaign, hosting Invicta Mustangs at the Thunderdome on Saturday 13th September. A good crowd filed into the arena to see a young and energetic Thunder team look to build upon a strong pre-season and begin the new season with a strong performance. 

Debuts were handed to 97 Marks Kanins, and 12 Joshua Blackwood – making his first senior appearance at just 16 years of age.

Thunder started strong, and looked to attack early with a starting line of Xander Robinson, Harry Macgarvey and Kanins brining plenty of offensive firepower. After a couple of forays into the Invicta zone, a quick regroup in the middle got the puck to Kanins through the middle as he cross the blue line and he finished smartly to open his Thunder account after just 49 seconds. Invicta responded well and applied plenty of pressure on Thunder’s net, testing Burton between the pipes several times as they looked to shoot at every possible opportunity. The home team weathered the storm however, and 5 minutes later it was Kanins once again who beat the netminder over his near shoulder into the top of the net to score his second and give Thunder a 2-0 lead. Play was end to end for the remainder of the first period, Invicta’s netminder kept his team in the game as he made a smart save to deny Kanin’s a hattrick and then stood firm to keep Xander Robinson’s penalty shot out with a few minutes remaining before the break.

Thunder looked to start the second period as they had the first, and pinned the Mustang’s back for the opening of the second, but struggled to get inside a well organised defence for any real threat. The Mustangs continued to put pressure on Thunder’s goal at every opportunity, Burton regularly having to be on his toes to maintain the 2-0 scoreline until the 28 minute mark when Thunder finally got one through – James Moeller’s shot from the blue line finding Sam Peter’s stick in front of the net and deflecting in to push the score to 3-0, as it remained until the end of the second.

The third period started the same as the previous two, with Thunder getting good zone time and on the front foot. Their efforts were once again rewarded a minute in on 40:57 when another tidy cycle play found Moeller on the blue line who’s shot found the twine without help on this occasion to make the score 4-0. Invicta did not fade away, and pressed hard to find a goal to give them a route back into the game. Despite the scoreline, Thunder has not dominated the game as they would have hoped and a Jake Stedman goal on the 50 minute mark gave Invicta hope. The visitor’s looked determined to give everything they had, and the pressure provided a young and inexperienced Thunder roster a real challenge. A second breakthrough for the Mustangs on 52 minutes only increased those nerves and the game completely shifted in one direction with everything seeming to threaten Thunder’s net. The home side held firm briefly, with Burton again making some big saves, but the third goal came on the 57 minute mark from Edward Gibson, quickly followed 35 seconds later by Stedman’s second to level the game. Thunder did manage to get back on the front foot briefly as Robinson had an outside chance to win the game late on but was again denied by the Mustangs netminder.

Into overtime we went, a late penalty for Invicta in regulation meant Thunder started with the extra man, and they nearly used this to their advantage as Kanins rang the iron from the top of the circle. With the Mustangs defence stranded a great set up pass from Sam Peters onto Kanin’s tape left the goal gaping, but the puck hit the wrong side of the crossbar my millimetres and found the netting above the glass instead. The rest of overtime flowed back and forth, but neither team found a way through which led to penalty shots to decide the extra point, where James Laming ended up with the game on his stick and calmy steered the puck past Burton to complete the comeback for the Mustang’s.

A night that Thunder will find disappointing for sure, but there were many positives to take away from the game and the young team demonstrated their quality and new-found offensive firepower which will give them great confidence as the season moves forwards.