DUBUQUE- With their backs against the wall for the second straight Game 2, the Bloomington Thunder responded on the road to split the weekend. Bloomington came out with a three-goal surge before needing to hold on for a 4-3 win in the final minutes of regulation. Saturday night the Thunder bested their Eastern Conference opponent, the Dubuque Fighting Saints, to tie the series at 1-1 heading back to Bloomington for games 3 and 4.
The Fighting Saints battled in the third period to pull within one goal at the end of regulation. With four minutes left in the game, the Thunder needed to kill off one of seven power plays for the Fighting Saints. As the play made it through the neutral zone at the end of the kill, Sean Harrison (Union College) battled his way to the line to give Blake Gober (Penn State University) a shot on the net. The first goal of the playoffs for Gober couldn’t have come at a better time for the Thunder, as it snuck through the body of Hunter Miska (University of Minnesota-Duluth). The Thunder took a two-goal lead with less than two minutes left to play.
Dubuque made it interesting with a goal with 19 seconds left to play. Bloomington’s defense finished the game off and held on for the nail-biting win.
Before we got to the third, the Thunder took it to the Fighting Saints right off the bat. Three goals in the opening two periods gave them the lead to play with. Patrick Curry (Boston University) scored the second of his post season on the power play. Tarek Baker (University of Wisconsin) dished the puck over to Curry for the shot under Miska’s glove.
Later in the first, the Thunder on the man advantage again had a chance. The glove of a Fighting Saints defender covered the puck in the crease causing a penalty shot for the Thunder. Jake Slaker (St. Lawrence University) extended the lead on the breakaway and now has 11 points (4g, 7a) in the playoffs to lead the USHL in points.
Hayden Lavigne (University of Michigan) put 18 saves away over two periods to lead the Thunder rebound performance over Dubuque. He also helped the team on the penalty kill as the Thunder were 6-for-7 when down a man. Dubuque was able to kill off a crucial 5-on-3 in the game, but could not hold the Thunder off the board. Less than six minutes into the middle period, Mitchell Mattson (University of North Dakota) ripped the puck past Miska. Mitchell Chaffee screened the Saints netminders as the Thunder rolled to their third straight goal.
Curry almost had another on Miska, but it rang off the cross bar. Bloomington responded on the Fighting Saints and scored four on just 19 shots. Lavigne ended the game with 26 saves for Bloomington in his fourth post-season win.
Short handed was how the Fighting Saints third period began and they scored two goals less than six minutes into the third. Ending Lavigne’s shutout was Michael O’Leary (University of Notre Dame) with his third of the playoffs, followed by Mitchell Smith’s (Yale University) second a little over three minutes later.
A flurry of shots in the final period gave the Saints a chance to tie the game. Lavigne stood tall and the defense was able to hang on against the top scoring offense in the regular season.
The series is now tied headed back to Bloomington for games 3 and 4 at the U.S. Cellular Coliseum on Friday and Saturday nights. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. as the Thunder have earned home ice advantage over the Saints to try and close the series out in the best-of-5 series.
