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Thunder Complete Sweep of Team USA

March 5, 2016 - United States Hockey League (USHL)
Bloomington Thunder News Release


Bloomington Thunder Shoots against Team USA
Bloomington Thunder Shoots against Team USA
(Bloomington Thunder)

BLOOMINGTON,Illinois - The Bloomington Thunder came out looking for a sweep of theUnited States National Team Development Program and that's just what they got.The thunder netted two unanswered goals in the game to take a 2-1 win at theU.S. Cellular Coliseum on Saturday night. The Thunder (29-17-3-1) have wontheir last five games sweeping back to back weekends and ending their seasonseries with Team USA undefeated in six games.

The game-winning goal went to forward Mitchell Chaffee who scored goals in both games for his club. Therookie's third period tally was his sixth of the season and assisted by Logan Lambdin (Michigan State University).The Thunder's leading goal scorer composed a four-point (2g, 2a) weekend forthe Thunder and has a three game streak of six points. Lambdin moved down theleft side of the rink to beat a Team USA defender to the puck, sliding it acrossto the Rockford, MI native to roof the puck just underneath the crossbar.

JakeDurflinger tied the game for the Thunder in the second period to alate goal from Team USA rounding out the first. The puck was passed up the wingby Jeremy Davies (NortheasternUniversity) before it was pushed further by Blake Gober (Penn State University). When Durflinger took the puckat center ice, he began a 2-on-1 with PatrickCurry into the offensive zone. At the right wing circle, Durflinger let awrist shot go over the left shoulder of JakeOettinger (Boston University) to tie the game a little over two minutesinto the period. The Thunder forward scored his 13th of the seasontoward his 25th point this year.

Both Davies and Gober extended theirpoint streaks to four and three games. The United States Hockey League's top goalscoring defenseman has five assists in four games, while the Colleyville, TXnative has two goals and a helper over his three games.

Helping the Thunder was a huge penaltykill during the second period. The Thunder were up on the power play for 20seconds before they were called for a tripping and hooking call on the samesequence. The 5-on-4 quickly turned to a 4-on-3 for a power play switch. Thethree men on the ice killed off the 1:40 disadvantage and proceeded to kill offthe final 20 seconds of a 5-on-3.

Helping with that penalty kill andmaking great saves in the game was HaydenLavigne (University of Michigan) who made 20 saves in his fifth consecutivewin. Despite a low shooting game of just 37 combined, Lavigne controlled theplay for the Thunder. The future Wolverine of Michigan collected his 22ndwin of the season and is now 7-1-0-0 in his last eight starts. Lavigne hasallowed just four goals in his last five starts.

The one tally for Team USA came in thefirst period. A shot from James Sanchez(University of Michigan) redirected on its flight path to the net andchanged up enough to score. The goal was the first lead of the weekend for TeamUSA and came in the final minute of the first period.

Keeping the leading scorers for theNTDP off the board, the Thunder were able to hand Oettinger just his secondloss of the season making just 14 saves in the game.




Images from this story

Logan Lambdin of the Bloomington Thunder at the Team USA Net
Logan Lambdin of the Bloomington Thunder at the Team USA Net

Bloomington Thunder Shoots against Team USA
Bloomington Thunder Shoots against Team USA

 

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