The Twin City Thunder held off a late charge by the Connecticut Junior Rangers and won 3-2 in Tier II junior hockey in Stamford, Connecticut, on Saturday.
Alexander Kozic made 30 saves in the victory for the Thunder. Thunder coach Dough Friedman went with Kozic in net Saturday despite Artur Ohandzhanian’s 37 saves in the season opener on Friday.
“For us, we want to give him time to see what he can do, he’s earned it so far,” Friedman said. “It’s very early in the season, we are in a good position, we have two goalies that have won games for us and have made big saves to help the team.”
Andrew Kurapov and Levente Keresztes had nice chemistry Saturday evening. Kurapov scored the Thunder’s opening two goals of the contest and Keresztes notched the lone assists on both goals. The first goal came late in the first period while the second goal came 54 seconds into the second.
“That line has been doing well, with (Kurapov), Keresztes, (Zach) Egber,” Friedman said. “They have a different element that they bring. (Keresztes and Egber) contributed in some real positive ways throughout the game to Andrew’s goals. It’s starting to mesh, which is great. It’s only two games in, but it’s nice to see that they are producing.”
Five minutes after Kurapov’s second goal, Christian Blomquist gave the Thunder a 3-0 lead.
Philip Quetell put Connecticut on the board with three-plus minutes remaining in the game. Jin Lee scored with 14 seconds remaining in the contest on the man advantage.
The Thunder were on the penalty kill for a good chunk of the third period.
“The last couple of minutes our penalty kill did a great job overall,” Friedman said. “They pulled the goalie and ended up with (one) power play goal against. They made some real nice plays, I have to give the Connecticut team credit, they executed well and overall we are happy with our penalty kill.”
Brandon Tate also made 30 saves for the Rangers.
The Thunder cap off the three-game road trip in a rematch with Rangers at 1:15 p.m. in Stamford.
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