Thunder 7, Lightning 3

Thunder 7, Lightning 3

PHOTOS

D&C Staff Reports 02/10/09

Greece Thunder hockey wins one for coach 'Webby'

GREECE — After all of 16 seconds had elapsed, Riley Bourbonnais made it clear that the Greece Athena/Odyssey Thunder would not be stopped.

Greece Olympia/Arcadia did recover after the early goal by Bourbonnais started the Thunder, but the Lightning could not keep up and lost 7-3 Tuesday to a Greece Athena/Odyssey team thankful it will get its head coach back.

Thunder team leaders Eric Gunderson, Greg Ryan and Pat Sofia walked in their skates through an excited, standing-room crowd of about 900 people at Lakeshore Hockey Arena and into the bleachers to hug Dan Webb after the annual "Storm" game between the two teams.

Bourbonnais and Ryan each scored two goals to help keep the Thunder, the state's top-ranked Division I team, unbeaten at 20-0-0.

Webb, in his ninth season as the Thunder coach, resigned suddenly Friday after an investigation by the district superintendent's office for "questionable conduct" during a tournament the team played in outside of Syracuse earlier this season.

Parents of Thunder players said that Webb was forced to resign when it was discovered that he drank alcohol while socializing with parents. The Greece Central School District decided before last night's game to suspend Webb, 43, and assistant Erik Geller for two games and place them on probation for the remainder of the season. The two coaches are eligible to return to the bench when sectional play starts next week.

"It's definitely uncertain when you don't know who was going to coach the team,' said Thunder forward J.T. Stenglein, a sophomore at Athena.

"We definitely wanted Webby."

The players took instruction from former Thunder assistant Tim Bryan, and built a 5-1 lead over the Lightning. Greece Athena/Odyssey outshot the Lightning 27-22.

Bourbonnais, who also finished with two assists, became the Thunder's all-time points leader.

The Athena sophomore beat Lightning goalie Josh Opladen with a low backhanded shot to bring the Thunder fans to their feet and Athena/Odyssey goalie Mike Rotolo out of his crease in celebration mode 16 seconds into the game.

"It got the team some momentum and we played good after that," said Bourbonnais. "We outplayed them the whole game. Getting the first goal is always important. Then we can just build off it. It feels good to be the all-time leader but I just want to win a state championship."

Brandon Wood and David Powlowski each had a goal and an assist and Kendrick Heintzelman also scored for the Lightning.

Wes Vyverberg Reports

Game Report
As this year's STORM host, Lightning threw us a curve-ball, leading off with a coed anthem duet. But with a new hybrid coaching staff on the bench, consisting of Tim Bryan (a former Thunder assistant), Andy Rice (Athena Girls Varsity Soccer coach) and Jason Bunting (Athena Boys Varsity Baseball coach), Thunder hit this one out of the park, handing Lightning a 7-3 news bulletin on their way to a fifth consecutive STORM victory at the 'shore.

Just 16 seconds into the game Riley Bourbonnais cracked the seal after picking up a nice leave from Greg "Book Buddy" Ryan along the boards. Five minutes later JT Stenglein walked out of the corner and cashed in on the powerplay assisted by Ryan and Cheeseman. Time of the first "YeahThun-Derrrrrrr!" was 6:06. Scotty made a couple of nice clears on the PK and then Riley went on a breakaway before it was over but he got stoned by Opladen on his shorthanded bid. Lightning cut the lead in half when Brandon Wood scored with less than five minutes to go in the opening period. Then Ryan answered back a couple of minutes later on the powerplay assisted by Bourbonnais and Stenglein to restore the 2-goal lead.

Ryan wasted no time scoring his second goal 32 seconds into the second period, after Bourbs' pass across the grain found its way onto his stick. Pat Sofia recorded the second hand assist on Thunder's fourth goal. Fast forward a few more minutes and Sofia would tally himself on a beautiful play that originated with Scotty's mouth as he called for the puck in the middle of Gunderson's wind up. So Eric pulls up and slides it across, then Scotty walks it in and takes a low/hard shot that kicks out to Sof who was poised to sweep it into the net, making it 5-1 Thunder. Lightning changed their goaltender at the stoppage and then managed to score again late in the second on a wide angle shot by Kendrick Heintzelmann. And so it was 5-2 Thunder going to the cut, with the 50/50 proceeds going to Skating For the Cure.

Bourbonnais opened up the final frame with his second goal 2 minutes in off a shot from the point by Tam-Grimshaw, that was also assisted by Ryan. David Powlowski managed to eke out one more for the Lightning a minute later on the wraparound. Then with just under 7 minutes to go, Matt Lane treated everyone to the highlight-reel goal of the season as he went barrelling down the left side of the ice, made a few tight pulls, megged the Lightning defenseman (#14), and then went effortlessly upstairs to cap things off at 7-3. A couple of minutes later a twig snapped and bodies started flying but stripes let the play continue while the intensity was building. With 4 minutes to go Vyper got tangled up with Brandon Wood and a bit of a scrap ensued as Wood tried to take some liberties. Cheese stepped in to break things up and the crowd chanted Vyper-Vyper as both players were escorted to the box, Vyper with a minor rough and Wood with the double. It was great to see such a large contingent of students in the stands supporting and cheering on their classmates all nite!

While tonight was arguably less about individual achievement and more about coming together as a community, I would be remiss if I did not mention that Riley Bourbonnais surpassed the all-time Thunder career scoring record of 101 points, set by Andrew DiBitetto back in 2004. First star of the game goes to Greg Ryan with 2 goals and 3 assists for 5 points; second star goes to Riley Bourbonnais with 2+2=4; and third star goes to Scotty Tam-Grimshaw with a pair of assists and a solid effort all the way around.

Shots were 27-22 in Thunder's favor. Rotolo made 19 saves for his 7th win and Thunder advanced their record to 20-0, with a 7-3 margin over the Lightning. Thunder's Storm Game Record improved to 5-2-2 and they get to keep the Trophy for yet another year. At the conclusion of the trophy presentation, the captains skated off the ice and walked up into the stands with their skates on to present the STORM trophy to Webby. This one's for you!