Islanders Hockey Club goalie Nevin Tardif, right, makes a nifty save on a point-blank shot by Twin City Thunder’s Matt Hanlon, center while being defended by Michael Bermingham, left. (Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal)
AUBURN — When asked what was said during the first intermission, Twin City Thunder coach Doug Friedman said, “No comment.”
Whatever it was, the message got across as the Thunder exploded for five goals in the period en route to a 7-3 victory over the Islanders Hockey Club on Friday night at the Norway Savings Bank Arena.
“We had a slow start at the end of the first, but as a group we know the expectations (the coaches) set for us and the standard they hold us to,” Jeromey Rancourt said. “We followed the game plan and the guys within the locker room discussed what we needed to do. I think we did that pretty well.”
Down 3-1, the Thunder started the second period defending in their own end for the first two minutes. But once they got the puck out their own end, they struck. Zach Desmarais found Rancourt, who beat Islanders goalie Nicolas Poirier at the 2:52 mark.
“We just kept more things simple,” Desmarais said. “We put pucks deep and we did our forecheck, we kept our system and put pucks into the net. That really made the difference, and we got a lot of good bounces — we scored a lot of goals, that’s the way to do it.”
It wasn’t long before the Thunder struck again. Defenseman Etienne Crousle ripped a shot past Tardif 55 seconds later — Lewiston natives Cody Doyon and Rancourt had the helpers — to tie the game up at 3-3.
Just past the seven-minute mark, Zach Simpson’s wrap-around goal gave Twin City a 4-3 lead. Doyon and Nick Malik picked up the assists.
Malik, a defenseman, gave the Thunder a 5-3 lead with 7:58 remaining in the period on a goal set up by Matt Hanlon and Desmarais.
Friedman appreciated how much offense came from the defensemen in the period.
“Four of our seven goals were from defenseman,” Friedman said. “It’s always great when you have your blueliners chipping in too.”
Desmarais had the goal of the evening after the Thunder stole the puck in the neutral zone for a 2-on-1 that quickly turned into a 3-on-1 when they got into the offensive zone. Once Desmarais, Derric Trudeau and Hanlon set up the triangle, the three worked their magic: Hanlon, on the right side, made a pass to Trudeau at the top of the triangle, who fed Desmarais at the left of the triangle. The pass missed its intended mark to Hanlon, but found its way past Islanders goalie Nevin Tardif.
“I wasn’t trying to shoot it, that’s the thing,” Desmarais said. “I was trying to pass it back, it went five-hole.”
The Thunder couldn’t convert on a 5-on-3 power play during the first 1:03 of the third period. The back half of man-advantage was a five-minute major and a game misconduct on the Islanders’ Lassi Lahteenmaki for face masking.
Twin City couldn’t find the back of the net for the remaining 3:57 of that penalty.
“In the reality of it, that five-minute penalty was a surprise to us when we got to the bench (for the third period),” Friedman said. “We clearly saw what happened and we knew it should have been a penalty and we didn’t think the refs caught it, but they did. … I wasn’t happy with our execution on that 5-on-3 at all. We will be practicing that this week coming up.”
Once the Islanders were back to full strength, they capitalized as Sam Dorfman potted his second of the game, with Brett Tibbs picking up the assist at the 7:34 mark.
Rancourt added an empty-netter with five seconds remaining in the game.
The Islanders jumped out to a 1-0 lead 5:49 into the first period when Dorfman blasted a shot from the top of the left circle off an assist by Tibbs. Tibbs also set up Anthony Ceolin’s power play goal at the 12:42 mark. Declon O’Neil notched the other assist on the goal.
Thunder appeared to get the momentum when Henry Reznicek and Spencer Smith went to the penalty box for the Islanders, giving the Thunder 1:32 of a 5-on-3 power play. With two seconds remaining in Reznicek’s penalty, defenseman David Martinek’s shot from the point put the Thunder on the board.
Martinek’s defensive partner Nicolas Poirier had the primary assist, while Doyon picked up the secondary assist.
Jonathan Courtchesne restored the two-goal lead with 17 seconds remaining in the opening period. He streaked down the left-side boards and beat Jaxon Friedman on the backhand, and the Islanders went into the dressing room with a 3-1 lead.
Islanders’ Anthony Ceolin gets a shot off on goal as Twin City Thunder’s Jacob Dubay defends. Thunder goalie Derek Fournier, left, made the save on the shot. (Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal)
Twin City Thunder head coach Doug Friedman talks to his players during Friday night’s hockey game at the Norway Savings Bank Arena in Auburn against the Islanders Hockey Club. (Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal)
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