Saturday, November 18, 2000

 

Thunder Find Offense in 5-2 Victory Over Yukon Claimjumpers

November 18, 2000EUGENE, OR…Look out Nor-Pac because the Eugene Thunder have found their confidence and are coming to town to visit you real soon. Tonight’s game began with a three-minute flurry by the Thunder that set the Claimjumpers back on their heels a bit. It may have arguably been the first time the Thunder hit the ice without leaving any of their game in the locker room. Remembering the physical play from last night, Chance Lau picked up where he left off, grinding guys out in the corners. Nolan Baker and Aaron Roberge continued to pour on the offensive pressure while attempting to connect for that elusive first goal of the night. Andreas Collander and Jake Meisenheimer were strong in their own zone, not allowing Yukon to get their game established. Things were looking good and then Mark Demmer was whistled for a penalty and the Thunder fell apart. The only bright spot in the rest of the bleak period was goaltender Cory Johnson who positively stood on his head to keep his team in the game. To everyone’s relief when the period ended, the Thunder were only trailing 1-0. The only guy to sneak one by Johnson was Yukon’s Clayton Thomas. He picked up his 4^th goal of the season to put his team on top at 4:24 of the first period.Inspiration comes from strange places sometimes. In this game, it was an overheard comment from Yukon’s radio broadcasters. They happened to mention that when the Claimjumpers were in Puget Sound Thursday night, the Kings said their games in Eugene would be a "walk in the park." The Thunder boys took that comment to heart and came out on fire in the second period. Yukon’s walk began turning into a nightmare at the 1:48 mark when Nolan Baker cruised across the slot and back handed a beauty over Yukon goalie, Darren Odynski’s shoulder. It was a powerplay goal assisted by brother Tommy Baker and hotshot center, Aaron Roberge.Yukon’s physical game stepped over the line tonight from good, hard and clean to hard and chippy. At times, the Thunder followed, issuing some healthy slashes and a few well-placed punches. But the Claimjumpers seemed to head to the box more often than not during the second period and the Thunder made sure to capitalize. At 8:19 Sean MacDonald scored from the top of the slot during a brief period of full strength play. The goal was amusing due to the fact that both Mark Demmer and captain Sean MacDonald wound up and struck the puck at the same time. Sean’s stick made contact first, so he was credited with the goal, but Mark Demmer should have been awarded a literal assist since his stick cradled Sean’s as the shot came off the ice. As it stands however, only Andreas Collander will be credited with getting the puck to the slot where it was available to be sent into the net by Demmer and MacDonald. This goal gave the Thunder their first lead of the night and they weren’t about to look back. At 16:11 of the second period, Chance Lau buried another puck behind Darren Odynski on the powerplay to bring the Thunder’s lead to 3-1. Cory Johnson played a perfect period, stopping all 13 shots fired upon him by the Claimjumpers.The third period began much the way the second period had been, with the Thunder scoring. It only took :49 for Tommy Baker to walk in from the point on the power play and indeed score his first official goal of the season, assisted by his brother, Nolan to put the Thunder up 4-1. About a minute later, Aaron Roberge fired the puck on the net and Sean MacDonald was able to corral the rebound to give the Thunder a comfortable four goal lead over the visibly sagging Yukon Claimjumpers. In fact, the Yukon coach called a timeout to try and get his guys’ heads back into the game.It took the Claimjumpers about seven minutes and the help of some not-so-smart penalties taken simultaneously by Tommy Baker and Garrett Carter to breathe some life back into Yukon’s game. The Claimjumpers were able to convert both on the 5-on-3 with Jamie Barker slamming one home and also on the 5-on-4 as Yukon’s Tevely fired a laser shot by Cory Johnson. But that would be the end of the scoring. And ironically, the end of the penalties, too. The rest of the period was hard fought. Yukon continued to pour on the pressure, but Johnson and the rest of the Thunder were up to the task. Martinez and Graftaas were instrumental throughout the game for their defensive skills. But their willingness to backcheck like demons and their uncanny ability to clog all the passing lanes became especially vital as the Thunder battled to hold on to their two goal lead.And hold on they did. It was a sweet victory to spoil the Claimjumpers’ walk through this park. The weekend series will be decided tomorrow afternoon at 1:00 pm at Lane County Ice arena.Thunder Notes: With four Thunder players out of the lineup tonight (Knebel, Ankney, Fields and Rasmussen), two new players donned uniforms and joined the team. Forwards Lee Jurasevich and Phil Bingman skated a few shifts early in the game, but having had no time to practice with the team nor learn the systems, the game was more of a learning curve for them. It is expected that these two local 19 year olds will make greater contributions to the team in the next few weeks.

After the game tonight, the Thunder held a turkey shoot with many of the attending fans taking their chances to win a turkey for their Thanksgiving dinner. Fun was had by all. But the most amusing moment occurred when Mark Demmer’s mom proved that scoring does run in the family. Her shot from the red line found the back of the net with no problem. Who would have guessed that Mark Demmer’s masterful shot was inherited from his mom? Four lucky fans walked away with turkeys. Look for more fun Thunder events at future games.

 

Player Statistics

Friday, November 18, 2000 vs. Yukon Claimjumpers

No.	Name	G	A	Pts.	PIMs	PP	SH	GWG	FG
1	Martin Stehl
2	Andreas Collander	0	1	1
4	Cassidy Esty		1		2
7	Max Manders
8	Sean MacDonald	2	0	2
9	Freddy Martinez
10	Eric Graftaas
11	Chance Lau	1	0	1		1
12	Andrew Fields
14	Aaron Roberge	0	2	2
15	Lee Jurasevich
16	Nolan Baker	1	1	2		1			1
17	Mark Demmer				4
19	Jeff Knebel
20	Josh Ankney
21	Garrett Carter				2
22	Phil Bingman
23	Jake Meisenheimer
24	Tommy Baker	1	2	3	6	1		1
27	Alan Rasmussen
30	Cory Johnson

 

 

No.	Name	Mins	W	L	GAA	Svs	Sv%	SO
1	Martin Stehl
30	Cory Johnson	60	1	0	3.00	32	.914