AUBURN — Friday’s Twin City Thunder and Islanders Hockey Club game was a battle of special teams.

But when it came down to the nitty-gritty, it was an old-fashioned even-strength goal that gave the Thunder a 2-1 victory in a USPHL NCDC North Division game at Norway Savings Bank Arena. The win gave the Thunder their third straight win in a span of five days.

The teams combined for 11 power plays in Friday’s contest.

Lewiston native Dominic Chasse, who took two penalties in the contest, potted the game-winner with 1:48 remaining in the game after he jammed home a scramble in front of Islanders goalie Connor Strobel’s crease.

The win puts the Thunder (18-18-3, 39 points) in sole possession of fifth place in the North Division, five points pack of the South Shore Kings (20-15-4, 44 points) and Boston Advantage (20-15-4, 44 points), who are tied for third and hold the final two playoff spots. The Islanders (17-20-3, 37 points) are in sixth, two points back of the Thunder.

Chasse said the team knew how important the win was for their playoff hopes.

Advertisement

“It’s kind of a big weight off our back, winning that game. We needed to get those two points,” Chasse said.

The Islanders peppered Thunder goalie Trey Miller in the final two minutes to try and force overtime, but Miller made a key sprawling save to help secure the victory.

Miller had a few big saves in the game. He made 36 of them in total for the afternoon.

“He made some real big saves,” Thunder coach Dan Hodge said. “Early on in the first period, a really nice glove save on a tip in the zone. He has been playing great lately and seeing the puck well. Our (defense) is doing a good job in front of (the goalies) clearing rebounds.”

Islanders coach Tim Kyrkostas said he doesn’t have too many complaints from the team in the losing effort.

“That was a great hockey game,” Kyrkostas said. “After the game, Dan Hodge and I met at center ice and Danny said, ‘I wish we had 40 of those.’ That was a great, great hockey game. We had our chances. I loved the way my team played. We played hard, we played the right way and we did everything we could to find the back of the net.”

Advertisement

The first period saw the Islanders get the game’s first two power plays, but the Thunder killed both of them off.

Twin City had one man-advantage in the opening period, which helped tilt the ice to its offensive zone but the Thunder couldn’t get shots past Strobel (34 saves).

Defenseman Kadsen Johnson put the Thunder on the board early in the second period with a shot from the point on the man-advantage. Defensive partner Cullen McCormick and forward James Tatro provided the assists.

Johnson has missed a couple of weeks due to an injury.

“He got hurt Jan. 27, had a little bit of an upper-body injury,” Hodge said. “We knew he would be back. He was skating really well before the injury and he was skating well this week. We are happy to have him out there.”

The Thunder were 1 for 4 on the power play and the Islanders were 1 for 7.

Advertisement

The Thunder had a golden chance with a five-minute major power play shortly after going up 1-0, when Islanders’ Maksim Tsegelnik drilled Thunder forward Nolan Leonard in the head and Tsegelnik was also given a game misconduct.

“That was a huge point. We were down 1-0 at the time and we killed that five-minute power play off and they didn’t have a lot of chances on that five-minute power play,” Kyrkostas said. “We did a good job on that penalty kill.”

However, during the major, Tatro got called for a slash and after his penalty expired, the Thunder couldn’t convert on the remainder of Tsegelnik’s penalty.

Tatro’s penalty started five straight trips to the box for the Thunder. Top-line center of the Islanders, Patrick Somerville, scored on the third of those penalties in the third period. His shot beat Miller as it rang off the post and into the net, tying the game 1-1.

“You never want to take penalties in the offensive zone,” Hodge said. “I think three-quarters of penalties we took today were in the offensive zone. We weren’t disciplined with our approach.”

The Thunder next travel to take on the New Hampshire Junior Monarchs on Wednesday at 11:40 a.m.


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.