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Another Double
Header!
Thunder faced
another difficult weekend, this time against one of the favourites for the title
this season, Cardiff Devils. Saturday saw Thunder travel to Cardiff with another
weakened team, 8 senior players missing through a mixture of injury and work
commitments. Particularly badly effected was Thunder’s defence, with only two of
the recognized defence available, forwards Sam Fairhurst and Lewis Clifford
dropped back to make up a makeshift four man defence.
So, icing a very
young team, Thunder were relying on fast breakouts and even faster backchecking
for the forwards, and occasionally it worked with some good cycling of the puck
in the Cardiff zone. However, the defensive zone saw more than enough of
Cardiff’s powerful forward lines and in the end, although the guys never gave
up and competed well with a full strength Cardiff side, they lost out 12-2.
Highlights from Thunder came firstly with a fantastic Connor Goode goal,
assisted by Martyn Snape and Lewis Clifford, and then Snape scoring the second
with line mates Connor and Harrison Goode providing the assists.
Sunday, and it was Devils
turn to travel but the result was similar. Thunder had more strength with
players back in, but fatigue from the night before and a few mistakes meant they
were never really in the game. Although the shots on goal tally was almost even
at 36 for Cardiff and 35 for Thunder, the Milton Keynes side never really
produced any quality shots and failed to get in front of the net for the many
rebound opportunities. Cardiff on the other hand
produced quality shots from all over the zone, always had a man driving the net
and generally gave Mark Woolf, and later Kevin McGurk, a torrid time in
Thunder’s goal. The final period was by far the best for the home side but they
still failed to score in a 0-10 defeat.
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