Thunder began their NIHL 1 South campaign at home against an Oxford City Stars team in a similar situation, with a new head coach in Mark Saunders and a fresh roster for the 2024/25 season.

Head Coach Will Fry handed debuts to many of the new faces bought in to Milton Keynes over the summer, and it was one of those 83 Xander Robinson who opened the scoring just 34 seconds into the match – combining with Thunder stalwart Harry MacGarvey around the Oxford net.

The first period featured end to end action, with both netminders being tasked with making key saves before Oxford levelled the game on 6 minutes with a well taken goal from Casey Wilson rushing through the coverage to beat Craig Bradfield one on one. Both teams exchanged blows for the rest of the period, with Thunder called upon several times to kill penalties and keep the scores tied at one apiece.

The second period began as the first has ended, foggy, as the outside temperature played its role on the visibility inside the arena. Oxford started strong, pinning Thunder back in their own end for several minutes before a breakaway chance for Hayden Hagger led to Miller making an important right pad save at full stretch. Again the game levelled out with chances at both ends before a smart shot nearside from Felix Hemmings-Maher beat Bradfield bar down to put Oxford ahead. Thunder regrouped and continued to press towards the end of the period, creating several quality chances on the powerplay. A call on Aidan McGurk for kneeing with 2 seconds left in the period gave Thunder a late chance from the faceoff, and meant they would head into the third period with the extra man.

The additional strength told early for Thunder as 7 James Bryan levelled the game with an accurate wrist shot from just inside the blue line that beat Miller off the inside off the post, through heavy traffic in front. The goal invigorated Thunder who continued to apply pressure, creating numerous chances around the Oxford net, only to be denied by an in form Miller who showed his quality time and time again on the night. As time cross the halfway mark in the period Oxford once again managed to pin Thunder back into their zone, resulting in a Chris Cooke finding time and space on the weak side to beat Bradfield low through traffic and put the City Stars ahead once again.

With 2 minutes left, coach Fry pulled Bradfield in favour of an extra skater, with Mark Austen providing acrobatic cover defensively to keep out Oxford’s attempts from ending the game. Thunder’s young talent gave one final push, creating more high quality opportunities with seconds left, but couldn’t find a way past Miller or his ironwork to take the game to overtime.

A performance to be proud of for both teams, and plenty of positives to take away for a refreshed Thunder lineup. The team will look ahead to next week’s fixture away at Solent Devils, and will have one eye further down the schedule for the next meeting between these two teams as it promises to be a lively match up over the course of the season.