Thunder Must Remember, Remember the First of November

Thunder looking ahead to a fresh start after their first win of the season

The Halloween weekend was full of highs and lows for the Thunder as they had a home-and-away series with the Toronto Furies.

Two Steps Forward

Struggling to move past their 0-4 start to the season, the Thunder started their Saturday night tilt at the MasterCard Memorial Centre with a bag of chips on their shoulder, but it seemed like they left the mean at home. With six members of the team being named to Team Canada for the Four Nations cup, the home-and-away allowed an opportunity for shuffling of lines and defense pairings to fill in the gaps.

Brampton was able to keep the penalties to a minimum, something they’ve struggled with as of late, allowing their scoring to take the forefront and push Toronto into playing their game. Two goals from Sarah Edney and Rebecca Vint sealed the 2-0 victory; the Thunder’s first of the season.

As expected, the team (and coach) were pretty excited.

Two Steps Back

Flying high off the well-played Saturday game, the Thunder were ready to go on Devil’s Night at home on Sunday. The Thunder were having their annual Pink The Rink fundraising game and hoped that the good karma would help them to get a win streak going.

Seizing the opportunity to ambush openings left by the temporary lines and defense pairings whipped up on Saturday, the Furies were skating hard, scoring five unanswered goals and frustrating the Thunder into taking numerous penalties.

The Furies set a brutal pace, culminating in a nasty hit to the head by Kelly Terry which resulted in both a two minute penalty and ten minute game misconduct penalty. However, rather than responding with goals, the Thunder started throwing bodies, to their detriment. While Toronto only capitalized on two of seven power plays during the game, the damage was already done.

Liz Knox did her best to defend against the onslaught, stopping 31 of 36 shots on goal for the Thunder, but to no avail. The Thunder were again their own worst enemy and October closed as it began, with a loss.

Where Do We Go From Here?

As many have mentioned and the Thunder are aware, something needs to change going forward if they want to wrestle back control of a season gone awry.

With the season taking a break for the Four Nations Cup, this might be a welcome chance for Brampton to hit the reset button and draft up a new plan for November. While there are definite positives to be taken away from their games, at this point something’s got to give.