In the first and third periods, it was an evenly matched contest between the Twin City Thunder and the P.A.L. Islanders in a National Collegiate Development Conference game Wednesday.
The second period, well, is 20 minutes the Thunder will want to forget about as the Islanders scored five times en route to a 6-0 victory at the Advent Health Center in Wesley Chapel, Florida.
“I thought the first period was a back-and-forth game, same with the third. In the second, we had another mental lapse,” Thunder’s acting NCDC coach Alex Drulia said. “We went into another mental lapse, penalties again, (bad) line changes, stuff like that. I thought in that third period we came back, we just couldn’t find the back of the net.”
This was the third time the two teams have met in Florida, and all three times the Islanders have shut out the Thunder (10-14-1, 21 points). The Islanders (10-13-7, 27 points) had back-to-back 2-0 wins against the Thunder on Jan. 8 and Jan. 10.
The reigning NCDC Goalie of the Year and Holy Cross recruit Thomas Gale (33 saves) pitched the shutout on Wednesday, his second since joining the Islanders in Wesley Chapel on Jan. 21 from the Hawkesbury Hawks of the Central Canadian Hockey League.
“I told the guys between the second and third period, we need to get pucks on net from all over the ice,” Drulia said. “You have to give the goalie credit, he made some good saves today. Three games in a row (against the Islanders), zero goals.”
The Thunder had 15 of their 33 shots on Gale in the third period.
University of Vermont commit Philip Waugh had two goals and an assist for the Islanders.
Will Kormanik opened the scoring in the second just past the five-minute mark, with Dom Settimo and Liam Donelan picking up the assists.
The Islanders poured it on in the second half of the second period. Kyle Jarosz scored to make it 2-0 as the puck squeaked past Thunder goalie Devon Bobak. The goal came at the 11:10 mark of the second.
Waugh stretched the Islanders lead to 3-0 with a blast from the point with six-and-half minutes remaining in the second period.
Donelan notched his second point of the period as he scored the Islanders’ fourth goal with three minutes remaining in the stanza. Anthony Bernado recorded his second straight assist on the goal.
Bobak’s morning ended after Ryan Willett scored his 12th goal of the season for the Islanders. It was a shorthanded goal. Bobak finished with 20 saves. Connor Leslie came in relief and made 14 saves.
“We pulled (Bobak) because I thought it would give us some momentum,” Drulia said. “It wasn’t (Bobak’s) fault, we made the change to get some momentum for the team.”
Waugh scored another goal from the point on the power play in the final minute of the game. The Islanders were 1-for-4 on the power play while the Thunder were 0-for-2.
Twin City takes on perennial powerhouse the Jersey Hitmen on Friday at 10:40 a.m.
“The guys competed to the very end and the best thing being down in Florida, you have to have a short-term memory because you are playing every other day,” Drulia said. “Our guys are focused on Friday and we got practice tomorrow, which will help us. Then we need to get ready for Friday.”
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