Thunder captures Suter Memorial title.

The schedule worked out well at the first version of the Bob Suter Memorial Regional Tournament near Madison Sunday (Sept. 20) as the opening night winners were slated to meet each other in their second games anyway.

The Bloomington Thunder took top honors with an 8-2 win over the host Madison Capitols in their game while the Green Bay Gamblers took the unofficial consolation title with a 3-2 edge against the Chicago Steel.

Thunder 8 Capitols 2

This one was all Thunder who carried a 2-1 lead out of the opening period and owned a 6-2 cushion by the start of the third.

Logan Lambdin, 19, from Carlton, MI enjoyed a huge game for the Thunder, firing four goals in the contest and Ethan Somoza, 19, from California added two more goals along with an assist.

Sean Harrison, 19, from Alaska collected a goal and assist while Steve Merl, 19, from Bloomfield Michigan helped out on a pair and Alec Mehr, 18, from California scored the other Thunder goal. Logan Halladay, 19, from North Carolina made 29 saves to pick up the win in goal.

Charlie Parker, 19, from Verona, WI and Luke McElhenie, 20, from Sauk City, WI scored the Capitols goals.

Gamblers 3 Steel 2

Teams traded goals through the first two periods, Charlie Raith, 18, from Winnetka, scoring the lone first period goal to put the Steel in front only to have Joey Marooney, 19, from Eden Prairie respond with the only goal of the second period for the Gamblers.

Nick Poehling, 19, from Lakeville, MN gave the Gamblers its first lead with his powerplay marker 3:56 into the third and Marc Michaelis, 20, from Germany added some insurance about 10 minutes later with the third powerplay tally of the game for the Gamblers.

Marcel Godbout, 19, from Center Line, MI, scored a shortahanded goal for the Steel with 3:34 to play, but that was as close as the Chicago squad could get to equalizing this one.

Adam Huska, 18, from Slovakia made 32 stops to nail down the win for the Gamblers and John Lethemon, 19, from Northville, MI turned aside 22 for the Steel.

The games on Sunday wrapped up the USHL pre-season and teams will be playing for two points beginning on Friday, Sept. 25.