Friday, November 24, 2000

 

Thunder overwhelm Pioneers 8-1

November 24, 2000EUGENE, OR…Nolan Baker, Aaron Roberge and the Eugene Thunder put on a show tonight at the Lane County Ice Arena. While the Portland Pioneers continued their ritual parade to the penalty box, the Thunder tightened their chin straps, glued their gloves on and put the puck in the net, over and over and over…and over again.The scoring onslaught began at 10:53 of the first period when Max Manders scored his 2^nd goal of the season, assisted by Freddy Martinez and Andreas Collander. Aaron Roberge and Nolan Baker were on fire all night long. They began conspiring early to foil Portland’s visit to Eugene. It took them a few tries to finally bury one, but at 14:36, Nolan took a beautiful pass from Roberge and he flipped it top shelf with a backhand that we may have to patent soon because he’s scored with that shot so often in the last few weeks.Goaltender Cory Johnson played a perfect period, stopping all 10 of the shots that the Pioneers mustered on goal. At the 2:00 mark of the second period, Pioneers’ captain Darrel Draper was able to tip a point shot past Johnson to get Portland on the scoreboard for something other than penalty minutes. It was a nice goal, but the only time the Pioneers would light the lamp tonight.It only took the Thunder two and a half minutes to answer Portland’s tally. Defenseman Tommy Baker wound up and fired the puck right into his brother Nolan who was standing in front of the net. Nolan managed to bat the puck out of the air and into the net. Later, Tommy would quip that this is not the first time the brothers have scored like this…it’s a play they’ve used before and as improbable as it seems, apparently, it works. Tommy’s defensive partner, Garrett Carter would pick up the first of his three assists of the night on this goal – which proved to be the game winner.That ended the scoring for the second period, leaving the Thunder up 3 goals to 1, but that was by no means the end of the play. Portland and Eugene continued to work hard and traded more than a few penalty minutes. The Thunder’s penalty kill was perfect. Captain Sean MacDonald, Chance Lau, Mark Demmer and Jake Meisenheimer all worked hard and played physically, backed by a solid Cory Johnson. The power play struggled a bit in the early going, but the boys would find their legs as the game went on and Portland went to the box time and again.Stepping out onto the ice for the third period, the Thunder was hyped and ready to put this game away. Aaron Roberge worked more magic with Nolan Baker just 1:09 in to score another beauty, putting the Thunder up 4-1. And incidentally, giving Nolan Baker a hat trick for the evening. But the Thunder weren’t content; they weren’t ready to lay off yet. Following the next face-off, Garrett Carter and Tommy Baker broke it out of the Thunder zone and got the puck up to Aaron Roberge who took the opportunity to bury the puck for himself. With the Thunder up 5-1, the Pioneers’ true game reared its ugly head. All the Thunder players had to put their time in on the front line as this one dragged on. Newcomer Phil Bingman started to get his feet wet, taking a few key shifts and throwing his weight around. When push came to shove, Thunder forward Josh Ankney went toe to toe with Pioneer center Eric Slaughter. Then Portland’s Matt Rude got ejected for spearing. And Chance Lau decided he’d had about enough, so he went a round with Portland forward Mitch Dixon. As the penalties kept coming, the Thunder found themselves on a 5-on-3 power play and they took full advantage. First it was Nolan Baker and Aaron Roberge again combining for Nolan’s 4^th goal of the night. Then, brother Tommy Baker got in on the act, blasting a power play goal from the point. (For those of you counting, Tommy’s on a three game goal scoring streak here.)Finally, Eric Graftaas was able to pot his own power play goal – assisted by Nolan Baker and Aaron Roberge - to give the Thunder an 8-1 lead and finish their scoring flurry at three power play in just under two minutes.The last ten minutes of the game ticked down slowly, featuring more penalties and an obvious preview of what is to come tomorrow night when these two teams will have at each other one more time. Game time Saturday night is 7:30 pm at Lane County Ice Arena.

Saturday afternoon will also feature a "Skate with the Thunder" event at the Ice Arena starting at noon. Bring your own skates, or rent them and come mingle with the players.

 

Player Statistics

Friday, November 24, 2000 vs. Portland Pioneers

No.	Name	G	A	Pts.	PIMs	PP	SH	GWG	FG
1	Martin Stehl
2	Andreas Collander	0	3	3
4	Cassidy Esty
7	Max Manders	1	0	1					1
8	Sean MacDonald
9	Freddy Martinez	0	1	1
10	Eric Graftaas	1	0	1	4	1
11	Chance Lau				9
12	Andrew Fields
14	Aaron Roberge	1	4	5		1
15	Lee Jurasevich
16	Nolan Baker	4	1	5	2	4		1
17	Mark Demmer				6 (10)
20	Josh Ankney				5
21	Garrett Carter	0	3	3	6
22	Phil Bingman
23	Jake Meisenheimer
24	Tommy Baker	1	2	3	2	1
27	Alan Rasmussen
30	Cory Johnson

 

 

No.	Name	Mins	W	L	GAA	Svs	Sv%	SO
1	Martin Stehl	14:26	0	0	0.00	4	1.00
30	Cory Johnson	45:34	1	0	1.00	21	.955