Thunder strikes in Cedar Rapids

The Bloomington Thunder, a sophomore squad in the United States Hockey League, reached the post season for the first time this season and one series in, the team is celebrating both its first series win and first upset.

A 5-2 win at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena in front of a stunned home town crowd of 1,553 saw the Thunder advance to the Eastern Conference Championship with a 3-2 win in its Best-of-Five Series against the Anderson Cup (Regular Season points leaders) Champion Cedar Rapids Roughriders.

Crazy series

The crazy five-game series saw both close games and blow out wins for both teams as the Thunder fought back to tie the series twice before basically coming down to the final 20 minutes.

It probably surprised nobody when the Roughriders opened the series with a 7-3 win on home ice on April 15, led by a two goal performance by 17-year-old Russian import Pavel Tkachkov. But a night later it was the Thunder responding with a 7-2 powered by a four point (2g, 2a) performance by 19-year-old Chicago native and St. Lawrence committed Jake Slaker. Jake Durflinger, 18, also scored twice in the win.

The series shifted to Bloomington and the playoff debut for the Thunder saw the team come up short 3-2 on April 22 and Callahan Burke, 18 (Notre Dame) broke a 1-1 draw with the lone goal of the middle period — his third of the series — and Ross Colton, 19 (Vermont) clinched it with an empty netter 14 seconds from the final buzzer.

Two nights later the host Thunder staved off elimination and forced the deciding contest with a 1-0 overtime win, Alec Mehr, 19, burying the lone tally 82 seconds into the extra period to spoil the day for goaltender Benjamin Blacker (Western Michigan) who stopped 38 previous attempts on the day after his 19th Birthday. Meanwhile, Hayden Lavigne, (Michigan) stopped all 21 shots having also celebrated his 20th Birthday just a few weeks previous.

That set the stage for Tuesday’s thriller

Thunder 5 at RoughRiders 2

Teams were all even at a goal apiece entering the final period as 20-year-old Careton, MI native Logan Lambdin (Michigan State) scored the lone goal of the opening period for the visiting Thunder with his third of the series and Will Garin (Connecticut), 18, from Mound, MN responded with the only tally of the middle frame.

Sean Harrison (Union), 19 put the Thunder in front again 7:44 into the final period but Zac Robbins (Brown), 19, from Glenview, IL evened things up again with 7:53 to go. That set the stage for 19-year-old Brogan Rafferty (Quinnipiac) from West Dundee, IL who put his Thunder squad in front for a third and final time with 5:19 to play.

Empty net markers by Slaker and Lambdin 14 seconds apart padded the margin and clinched victory.

Lavigne picked up the win in goal with a 29-save effort while Blacker turned aside 38 of 41 shots before racing to the Cedar Rapids bench in the final two minutes.

The Thunder will roll on to the Eastern Conference Championship series against the Dubuque Fighting Saints beginning Friday night at the Mystique Ice Center in Dubuque.