The Airdrie Thunder has its eight-game unbeaten streak snapped with a pair of losses last weekend.
With a 5-4 loss to the Red Deer Vipers, at the Ron Ebbesen Arena, Jan. 13, and a 7-3 loss to the Generals in Cochrane a day later, the Thunder drop back into a fourth-place tie with the Mountainview Colts in the Heritage Junior Hockey League’s North Division.
Assistant coach Gareth Barley said the team had opportunities to win both games, but just couldn’t keep its momentum from the previous eight games together.
“Things have really been coming together, as before this weekend we had gone 7W-0L-1T, so losses are bound to happen,” he said.
Airdrie’s Alex Diduch was handed a seven-minute penalty and game misconduct for a crosscheck five minutes into the game. Red Deer’s Troy Klaus scored 20 seconds later, on the first Viper shot of the game, to put his team ahead 1-0.
Ryan Gould responded for the Thunder two minutes later, before Red Deer’s Kolton Gillett restored the lead with 6:49 remaining in the opening frame.
“The first shot on net going in definitely hurt, but I think the guys kept it together on the bench, which is nice to see,” Barley said.
“Getting those first two penalties back-to-back in the first, with one of them being a seven-minute power play (for Red Deer), forced us to juggle the lines and put us behind early.”
The Vipers went up 3-1 12 seconds into the second period. Marcus Cheng then scored for Airdrie, by knocking in a rolling puck in front of the net, to make it 3-2
But Thunder forward Ryan Preston took a two-minute checking-from-behind penalty less than three minutes later and Red Deer responded with another power play goal.
Matt Flette, Airdrie’s offensive player of the game, and Dylan Johnston scored in the third, but Barley said the 20-minute effort wasn’t enough.
“If we would have played the first two periods how we played in the third, I’m fairly confident we would have won,” he said. “We outshot them 25-5 in that period. We had it tied, but it was a bad giveaway in the defensive zone that allowed them to go back ahead.”
Netminder Logan Marlow made 28 saves in the defeat.
In the 7-3 loss to Cochrane, where Brandon Esposito, Alex Hustad and Cheng had the goals, Cody Boeckman made 44 saves in net.
The Generals’ offence proved too much, Barley said, as Cochrane scored three times in the first and four times in the third.
“For two periods, I think we outplayed them, but we had a rash of penalties and injuries that put us down to three defencemen,” he said. “We had a lot of key players missing from the lineup, but it’s no excuse for the final outcome. They dominated the third period.
Tanner Kocis missed the Red Deer game with an undisclosed injury, while Diduch missed the Cochrane game due to suspension. Taylor Crossley missed both games with injury and Jayman Matlo left the Cochrane game with a concussion and will likely miss this weekend’s action.
The Thunder will host the Blackfalds Wranglers, Jan. 20 at the Ron Ebbesen, with an 8 p.m. puck drop, then travel to Three Hills to face the division-leading Thrashers on Jan. 21.
“We’ll probably key on the power play and some breakout stuff this week at practice to prepare for this weekend,” Barley said.
“We know what to expect out of Blackfalds and that will be a big game for us. We’ll see what happens in that game and then make adjustments for Saturday as needed.”
