Friday, October 20, 2000

 

Kings Reign Supreme

October 20, 2000

EUGENE, OR…The Eugene Thunder had a good opening period and they finished the game well. It was just the middle of the game that gave them trouble as they dropped a 7-4 decision to the visiting Puget Sound Kings Friday night at Lane County Ice Arena. Puget Sound started the scoring at 8:46 of the first period. While the Thunder were busy scrambling in their own end, the Kings executed a nice passing play from behind the Thunder net to find one of their own wide open in the slot. Nolan Baker answered back at 12:50 when he raced down the ice on his second breakaway of a single shift and buried the puck in the back of the net.The Thunder then spent much of the first half of the second period exhausting their penalty kill as they served four consecutive penalties. Jake Meisenheimer, Andreas Kollander, Mark Demmer and Alan Rasmussen were all notable, logging a good amount of time while the Thunder were short handed. In all that time, sometimes down by two men, they managed to only give up one goal to Puget Sound. That one goal, however, began a cascade of Kings’ goals through the second period as the Thunder couldn’t seem to settle down. Pinned in their own end, running around, there were too many goal mouth scrambles for Eugene goaltender Cory Johnson to keep all the shots out of the net. Ultimately, by the end of the second period, the Thunder were trailing 5-1.The third period began to look like more of the same as the Puget Sound Kings shoveled another puck into the net at 6:19. But instead of backing down, the squad rallied. Lead by Tommy Baker, Garrett Carter and Chance Lau, the Thunder picked up their physical play. Nolan Baker and Andrew Fields created several good scoring opportunities while Jeff Knebel and Sean MacDonald worked hard to box the Kings out of the Thunder defensive zone. At 11:00 of the third period, Aaron Roberge scored on a nice play set up by Max Manders and Andrew Fields. The Kings answered back on the power play at 14:04, but the Thunder weren’t ready to roll over. Eric Graftaas scored at 16:23 and Max Manders let a shot go from the top of the right circle that found the back of the net at 16:38 to make the score 7-4. Just as the momentum of the game was finally starting to shift towards the Thunder, they found themselves back in penalty trouble. They finished the game on the penalty kill and were unable to complete the comeback they’d embarked on.

The Thunder will have another shot at the Puget Sound Kings Saturday night, October 21^st at 7:30 at Lane County Ice Arena.

 

Player Statistics

Friday, October 20, 2000 vs. Puget Sound Kings

No.	Name	G	A	Pts.	PIMs	PP	SH	GWG	FG
1	Martin Stehl
2	Andreas Kollander
7	Max Manders	1	1	2
8	Sean MacDonald	0	1	1
9	Freddy Martinez
10	Eric Graftaas	1	0	1
11	Chance Lau				2
12	Andrew Fields	0	1	1
14	Aaron Roberge	1	0	1
16	Nolan Baker	1	1	2
17	Mark Demmer				4
19	Jeff Knebel				2
21	Garrett Carter	0	1	1	4
23	Jake Meisenheimer
24	Tommy Baker
27	Alan Rasmussen	0	1	1	2
30	Cory Johnson

 

 

No.	Name	Mins	W	L	T	GAA	Svs	Sv%	SO
1	Martin Stehl		0	0	0
30	Cory Johnson	60	0	1	0	7.00	29	.805