Twin City Thunder clinch third seed in playoffs with win over South Shore Kings

The Twin City Thunder capped off the regular season in style.

Two goals from former St. Dominic Academy standout Dom Chasse helped lead the Thunder to a 5-3 win over the South Shore Kings on Monday afternoon in a USPHL National Collegiate Development Conference North Division game at the Foxboro Sports Center in Foxboro, Massachusetts.

Chasse and linemate Sam Stitz have been hot the past week. The pair have combined for seven goals and six assists over the final four games.

“Stitz had a hat trick on Saturday and Chasse scored two today. Hopefully they are heating up at the right time, as they would say,” Thunder coach Dan Hodge said.

The win clinched the No. 3 seed for the Thunder (24-18-6, 54 points) in the North Division playoffs. Twin City will take on the second-seeded Jr. Bruins (28-15-5, 61 points) in the first round in a best-of-three series this weekend.

Game 1 is Friday at 3:30 p.m., Game 2 is Saturday at 4:30 p.m., and, if necessary, Game 3 is Sunday at 5:30 p.m. All three games will be played at the New England Sports Center in Marlborough, Massachusetts.

The Thunder fell 3-2 to the Jr. Bruins on Sunday before Monday’s regular-season finale.

“I think it was big for us because we hadn’t seen the (Jr. Bruins since) before Christmas when we played them in (Auburn),” Hodge said. “…We didn’t have our best game yesterday, but if we play our game, we will have some success.”

The Jr. Bruins won the regular-season series against the Thunder, 4-2.

Since the Thunder won the regular-season series against South Shore 4-2, the Kings (25-19-4, 54 points) drop to the No. 4 seed and face the top-seeded New Hampshire Jr. Monarchs (29-14-5, 63 points) in the first round.

The winner of that best-of-three series will face the winner of the Thunder-Jr. Bruins series in the second round, which is scheduled for March 25-27.

In Monday’s matinee, Chasse opened the scoring just 35 seconds into the game with his 13th goal of the season. Stitz and defenseman Ben Monson had the assists.

Caden Smith stretched Twin City’s lead to 2-0, just 52 seconds after Chasse’s goal.

“We wanted to set the tone early,” Hodge said. “Dom made a nice play, picked up the puck off the wall. He fell down to one knee, stood back up, shot it through a screen and beat the goalie glove-side. Next shift, Caden Smith comes down 2-on-1 and takes the puck to the net. He got a nice shot under the bar. It was nice to play with a lead.”

Defenseman Ryan Hintz scored a power-play goal nearly three minutes into the second period to give the Thunder a 3-0 lead. Monson and forward Trace Norwell had the helpers.

Andrew Carmody put the Kings on the board at the 5:30 mark of the second frame.

Chasse scored his second goal of the game to give Twin City a 4-1 lead midway through the second period. Forward Tyler Healey and defenseman Blake Tierney set the goal up.

Emile Trottier scored late in the second period for the Kings’ second goal of the game.

“They weren’t going to go quietly,” Hodge said of the Kings. “They play a hard game and a physical game. We knew that coming into the second period, they would start hitting and being physical and they did. We were able to weather the storm.”

The game remained 4-2 late in the third period until James Tepper scored his 15th goal of the season at the 16:49 mark to cut the Kings’ deficit to 4-3.

Nathan Chickering scored an empty-net goal with 30 seconds remaining in the contest for his 17th goal of the year for the Thunder.

It’s his fourth empty-net goal of the season and his first goal since Feb. 18.

“He’s a marksman, and he puts it in from the other side of the red line,” Hodge said. “You are pretty confident when he takes that shot, but your heart flutters for a second that it will be an icing, and the puck will be back in your end.”