Read Article
The Twin City Thunder gave the top team in the USPHL National Collegiate Development Conference all it could handle Friday, but it wasn’t quite enough to earn a victory.
The Thunder scored two third-period goals to force overtime, but the Jersey Hitmen scored twice in the shootout to come away with a 4-3 junior hockey win at the Advent Health Ice Center in Wesley Chapel, Florida.
“The boys really showed up and competed hard, obviously going up against the Hitmen, the first-place team, a team that only suffered (three) regulation losses all year,” Thunder assistant coach Cam Robichaud said. “The boys got up for the game and they were ready to come and compete to put forth a full 60-minute effort. Aand that’s what we saw, a good team effort, there wasn’t individual plays taking place.”
The Twin City Thunder are developing resiliency.
After letting a two-goal lead slip in the final five minutes of regulation, a goal by captain Nick Rashkovsky and an empty net goal by Hunter Schmitz gave the Thunder a 5-3 victory over the Utica Jr. Comets in a USPHL National Collegiate Development Conference contest at the Advent Health Center Ice in Wesley Chapel, Florida, on Tuesday.
“I thought we played a solid 60 minutes. I think we got into some penalty trouble late in the game and kind of gave them some life, but we found to pull out the two points,” Twin City Thunder assistant coach Alex Drulia said.
Read Article
The Twin City Thunder celebrate the victory over the Connecticut Junior Rangers Friday at the Advent Health Center Ice Rink in Wesley Chapel, Florida.
Josh Boyd/USPHL
Ever since the Twin City Thunder arrived in Wesley Chapel, Florida, NCDC head coach Dan Hodge has wanted more goal-scoring and being able to hold a lead. On Friday, he got both as the Thunder scored four times in the third period for a 5-4 victory over the Connecticut Junior Rangers at the Advent Health Center Ice Rink.
The players heard Hodge’s message during the second intermission after the team recently gave up leads to the New Hampshire Junior Monarchs and the Junior Bruins.
Read Article
After two periods, the Twin City Thunder had put up 26 shots but nothing to show for it. In the third period, they fired 10 shots and four found the back of the net in a 4-3 victory in a National Collegiate Development Conference game over the Boston Advantage at the Advent Health Center Ice Rink in the Wesley Chapel, Florida Tuesday morning.
The third period saw Thunder players driving to the net and making Advantage goalie Connor Bradford’s (26 saves) job more difficult.
“We took a lot of shots in (Bradford’s) glove and he made a lot of saves,” Thunder NCDC coach Dan Hodge said. “When you put the puck in his glove, he’s a good goalie. In the third period, we started to shoot off his body, going hard to the net and collecting rebounds.”
Read Article
As the Atlanta Falcons, New York Yankees and even the Boston Bruins will tell you, no lead is safe. Thursday morning, the Twin City Thunder also learned that lesson the hard way after they blew a 5-0 advantage.
The New Hampshire Junior Monarchs scored six unanswered goals to defeat the Thunder 6-5 in overtime of a USPHL National Collegiate Development Conference game at the Advent Health Center Ice Rink in Wesley Chapel, Florida.
“You take it in, we are fine, it is what it is, it’s a learning experience,” Thunder NCDC coach Dan Hodge said. “I guess the bright spot is we have scored 11 goals in two games (this week). It’s unfortunate, the last two games, the Kings game and today, we had a letdown in the second period. We just have to clean that up.”