NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, CFL stats



Thunder Down 2-1 in Eastern Conference Final

May 6, 2016 - United States Hockey League (USHL)
Bloomington Thunder News Release


BLOOMINGTON, Illinois - Friday night at the U.S. Cellular Coliseum theBloomington Thunder and Dubuque Fighting Saints put on a back and forth show inGame 3. The final score was a 6-4 finish that was exciting down to the finalseconds with an empty net goal sealing the win for Dubuque. They now lead theseries 2-1 with Game 4 coming on Saturday night from the Coliseum. Bloomingtonwas down 2-1 against the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders and won two straight to takethe series in five games.

It was a good pair of daysfor Alec Mehr (Brown University).After committing to an Ivy League school on Thursday, Mehr picked up his thirdgoal of the post season to give the Thunder the 1-0 nod. Mehr came down theleft wing with Ethan Somoza (BemidjiState University) on a 2-on-1. The Irvine, CA native, elected for the shotand beat Hunter Miska (University ofMinnesota-Duluth) through the five hole.

The Fighting Saints would diethe game a few minutes later on a short-handed goal from Shane Kavanagh (Providence College) the Thunder came back with apower play goal less than 30 seconds later. Blake Gober (Penn State University) was in the perfect spot as Wyatt Kalynuk (Western Michigan University)faked his shot. Instead, the defenseman fired a hard pass at Gober, whoredirected it past the Fighting Saints goaltender to take a 2-1 lead that wouldstand into the intermission.

If anyone expected the gameto lighten up by any means, they would've been wrong. The Fighting Saints cameback with an all out attack to start the period. Bloomington came through witha huge penalty kill at the start of the period, but as Somoza made his way backto the defensive zone Mitchell Smith(Yale University) tied the game. MichaelO'Leary (University of Notre Dame) then took the lead 30 seconds later on acrazy bounce that found it's way in the net.

Cameron Spicer (University of Maine) picked a great time for his first goal of theseason, tying the game at three. His shot found it's way through traffic andinto the net. Picking up assists were PatrickCurry (Boston University) and TarekBaker (University of Wisconsin) on Spicer's long shot.

The game was only tied foranother three minutes. The Thunder would head to the penalty kill and in thefinal seconds of another great effort, Fighting Saints Captain Keegan Ford (Michigan Tech University)made it 4-3 on a drop pass and shot. In the playoffs, Ford has had a flare foroffense, scoring 11 points from the blue line. He is now tied with Jake Slaker for the Clark Cup Playoffscoring race.

A physical and tense thirdperiod resulted in 10 penalty calls, as opposed to six in the first twostanzas. To start the third, Gober was sent in for tripping and the FightingSaints capitalized to finish the game 2-of-5 on the power play. Joey Keane (Miami University) scoredhis first of the playoffs and the eventual game-winning goal.

The Thunder battled andwouldn't go down without a fight. IN the final two minutes, Bloomington pickedup a power play goal with the net empty. Curry sealed a two-point night fightingfor a rebound and scoring his third of the post season. Within strikingdistance, the Thunder pulled their goaltender again and tried to tie the game.A few chances and eventually a power play with only 20 seconds left, theThunder battled to the final buzzer.

The Fighting Saints ended thegame with an empty net goal to take the final score and the advantage in theseries. Hayden Lavigne (University ofMichigan) suffered the loss in the game, but made 25 saves in between thepipes. The high scoring game caused Miska to make 38 saves in the win as theThunder peppered the net 42 times.

• Discuss this story on the United States Hockey League message board...

United States Hockey League Stories from May 6, 2016


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

Other Recent Bloomington Thunder Stories



Sports Statistics from the Stats Crew
OurSports Central