2nd period hurts again

Published 8:48 am Monday, October 6, 2008

The second period woes continued to haunt the Albert Lea Thunder Saturday night against Alexandria at the City Arena in an 8-2 loss.

The Blizzard scored five goals in the period as the Thunder (0-5-1) failed to earn its first win of the season. Alexandria got two power play goals and added a shorthanded goal in the second as the Blizzard took advantage of six Albert Lea penalties in front of a crowd of 395 spectators.

Derek Kaiser scored at the 1:54 mark on a power play and Garrett Grimstad added his second goal of the game seven minutes later as Alexandria jumped out to a 4-1 advantage halfway through the period. Jon Swavely added another power play goal and Noah Nemgar and Jacob Walsh scored nine seconds apart as the Blizzard carried a 7-1 lead heading into the third period.

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“Our problem is the second period again,” Thunder head coach Brad Zangs said. “The second period is killing us.”

Alexandria had 15 shots in the second period and scored on seven of them.

“The goaltending has to step up more,” Zangs said. “The save percentage was terrible, period.”

Goaltender Brady Sand faced 35 total shots in the game and turned away 27, allowing eight goals, three of which came on the power play.

The Thunder had 11 power play opportunities and converted on one. In the third period Niko Kapetanovic scored his second goal of the season in front of the Alexandria net which cut the lead to 7-2, but the Bilzzard came back 1:09 later with a goal by Lane Bitz on the power play for the 8-2 final.

“This is getting old, we have to get out of this slump,” Zangs said. “I’m sure we will eventually.”

Going from practice to the game has been a struggle for Albert Lea and the team hasn’t been able to make the transition.

“I thought we had the best week of practice this week,” Thunder forward Danny Wood said. “It’s got to transfer to a game.”

Wood said that some of the goals were preventable and that the team has to continue to cut down on the mental mistakes.

“Once again we were caught off guard in the second period and it was a lackluster effort,” Wood said. “I honestly don’t think they are 8-2 better than us. Once again it was mental mistakes and how do we correct that — I don’t know. You just can’t have a second period like that — letting in five goals. It just completely ruins the momentum of the game.”

Albert Lea trailed 2-1 after the first period and both teams had seven shots after one period.

“I don’t think it was an 8-2 game,” Thunder forward John Affolter said. “If you look at the shots it was pretty even.”

The Thunder had 27 shots in the game and Alexandria tallied 35, but the Blizzard capitalized on Albert Lea mistakes.

“It’s not that these teams are better than we are or more talented,” Wood said. “It comes down to them just being more prepared mentally. They capitalized on our mistakes and we don’t capitalize on theirs, knowing hockey it’s all about that.”

Wood scored the first goal of the game for Albert Lea on a pass from Kapetanovic. The Wood, Kapetanovic and Glomski line has produced 11 points for the Thunder this season. Kapetanovic had a two-point night Saturday and leads the team with 5 points on the season. Wood is the second highest with 4 points.

The Thunder plays Bismarck at home Friday and travel to North Iowa as the team will get its first taste of playing back-to-back game with travel in between.

“We have to keep working at practice,” Zangs said. “We do very well at practice, they just have to go from practice and putting it in a game. This was not an 8-2 game, this was a game that basically got away from us.”

1st 2nd 3rd Total

Alexandria – 2 5 1 8

Albert Lea – 1 0 1 2

GOAL SCORING:

1st period: Alexandria – Alexandria – Noah Nemgar 4 (Jerry Freismuth) 3:45

Alexandria – Garrett Grimstad 5 (Freismuth) 8:01

Albert Lea – Danny Wood 3 (power play) (Niko Kapetanovic) 17:57

2nd period: Alexandria – Derek Kaiser 2 (power play) (Jon Swavely, Freismuth) 1:54

Alexandria – Grimstad 6 (shorthanded) (Freismuth) 8:56

Alexandria – Jon Swavely 4 (power play) (Anthony Olson, Phil Webb) 11:46

Alexandria – Noah Nemgar 5 (Kyle Clement, Jacob Walsh) 16:18

Alexandria – Jacob Walsh 2 (unassisted) 16:27

3rd period: Albert Lea – Niko Kapetanovic 1 (power play) (Robbie Vannelli, Wood) 4:15

Alexandria – Lane Bitz 3 (power play) (Sean Kenny) 12:42

POWER-PLAY CONVERSION: Alexandria — 3 for 7, Albert Lea – 1 for 11,

SHOTS ON GOAL: 1st 2nd 3rd Total

Alexandria 7 15 13 35 Albert Lea 7 10 10 27