Bloomington Thunder Weekly - Season Opening Edition

October 22, 2013 - SPHL (SPHL)
Bloomington Thunder News Release


The first season for the Bloomington Thunder in the Southern Professional Hockey League is set to open this weekend with a home-and-home series against the team's closest rival.

Bloomington's eighth pro hockey season begins Friday at U.S. Cellular Coliseum with a 7:05 p.m. match against the Peoria Rivermen. As part of the opening night festivities, one lucky fan will drive away in a new Mitsubishi automobile from O'Brien Mitsubishi in Normal. Every fan in attendance will receive at least one chance for the car with more chances given to season ticket holders and those with other multi-game packages. Fans will also receive a magnetic schedule for the new season compliments of McLean County Orthopedics.

That's some exhibition: The Thunder won both pre-season contests last weekend over the Rivermen with both games needing extra time to determine a winner. The Thunder scored just 51 seconds into overtime on Friday in Peoria on a Tyler Noseworthy goal to take a 5-4 victory, then returned home on Saturday to win by the same score when Eddie Olczyk scored the only goal at the end of a nine-round shootout.

Roster-faria: Thunder coach Brian Gratz has set the 18-man roster to start the season on Friday night. Dan Barczuk and Matt Puntereri join captain/player assistant Travis Granbois as the three skaters who called Bloomington their pro hockey home last season, while Dennis Sicard returns to Bloomington after appearing in eight games here in 2009-10. The complete roster can be found at -6102/roster-358.

Southern hospitality: The SPHL begins its 10th season with 10 teams embarking on a 56-game schedule. Eight teams will make the playoffs, which are three rounds of best-of-three culminating in the awarding of the President's Cup. The Thunder's first road trips will be to Peoria on Saturday night and to Fayetteville, N.C. next weekend, November 1 and 2.

Listen up: All Thunder games, home and away, can be heard on WJBC.com with the direct link found on the home page of www.bloomingtonthunder.com. The broadcasts can be heard on most smartphones and mobile devices by following the same link. Fans are also invited to listen inside U.S. Cellular Coliseum to the WJBC broadcast on 93.7 FM. Video of every game with the WJBC call is also available by subscription with the link found on the homepage of www.bloomingtonthunder.com.

Juniors win: The Bloomington Junior Blaze took two out of three from the Detroit Fighting Irish during the weekend in Midwest Junior Hockey League play at U.S. Cellular Coliseum, concluding with Sunday's 6-3 win behind four goals from local product Micah Young and two goals from Brock Drews. Cameron Lerner picked up the wins in goal. The Junior Blaze host the Traverse City Hounds for three weekend games on the first weekend of November. A complete schedule and team information can be found at www.bloomingtonblazejr.com.

Season tickets are still available as are multi-game plans and group discounts by calling 309-434-2980. For single-game and game day tickets, visit or call the U.S. Cellular Coliseum box office at 309-434-2679. Follow the Thunder at www.bloomingtonthunder.com, Facebook and Twitter (BLMThunder).



SPHL Stories from October 22, 2013


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