Fury too much for Thunder, again

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buy this photo Muskegon's Scott Barnes, left, and the PrairieThunder's Mike O'Donnell go after the puck during the second period at U.S. Cellular Coliseum on Friday (Oct. 20, 2006) in Bloomington. (Pantagraph/B Mosher)

BLOOMINGTON - A flurry by the Fury put the Bloomington PrairieThunder on ice Friday night.

The Muskegon Fury scored four goals in a six-minute span late in the second period and cruised to a 7-1 victory over the Thunder in a United Hockey League game before a U.S. Cellular Coliseum crowd of 3,010.

"Tonight it was boys against men. That simple," Bloomington coach Derek Booth said. "That's why they're a great, winning franchise. They started from the time the puck dropped until the final buzzer. We just got our bleep bleep handed to us.

"There was no intensity. No one wanted to finish checks. They came into our building and pretty well walked all over us. But tomorrow is another day, and we have to make big-time adjustments."

The Thunder dropped to 1-2. They entertain the Rockford IceHogs at 7:05 tonight at U.S. Cellular Coliseum.

The Fury's barrage wasn't totally unexpected. Muskegon (3-0) had scored 16 goals in winning its first two games, including a 7-3 victory over the Thunder in the regular-season opener a week earlier.

Muskegon took a 2-0 lead after the first period but didn't put the game away until late in the second period.

Ryan Barnes' wrist shot from the right side went through the pads of Thunder goalie Jeff Reynaert, who was screened, to put Muskegon ahead 3-0 with 6:33 left in the second period.

Evan Kotsopoulos, Elias Godoy and Bill Zalba added goals for the Fury before the period ended for a 6-0 lead.

"We kind of tightened up a little bit more and tried to do too much," Thunder defenseman Chris Bogas said. "When you try to do too much and not simple things, three more goals go in and it's 6-0."

Adam Smyth made it 7-0 with 13:46 left when he beat Reynaert, who was pulled in favor of Steffan Braunlich.

The Thunder avoided the first shutout in franchise history late in the game. Dmitri Tarabrin took a Brad Thompson pass in the slot and shot the puck past Clayton Pool with 2:37 left.

That was about the only consolation for the Thunder.

"All three areas - goaltending, defense, forwards - got outplayed. It was a bad night all around," Booth said. "You've got to look at it, stay positive and move forward. Muskegon is a good team. We have to work harder and get smarter. It's going to come."

All seven Muskegon goals were scored by different players. The Fury took a quick lead when Jon Insana stole the puck behind the Bloomington net and centered to Mike Watt, who fired a slap shot past Reynaert for his league-leading fifth goal.

Another Thunder mistake led to Muskegon's second goal later in the period. Rustyn Dolyny stole Reynaert's clearing attempt in the corner. Dolyny found Todd Robinson in front of the net, and he flicked a short shot past Reynaert.

"I'm happy with the way our guys are playing. It's not just one line scoring," Muskegon coach Bruce Ramsay said. "We're getting scoring throughout our lineup. That's a huge part of having success … when you distribute scoring on all three lines, and defensively we're playing well, too. We have some very skilled defensemen out there who have contributed to our success."

Bogas said the Thunder contributed too much to Muskegon's success. The Fury outshot the Thunder, 42-22.

"We just have to make simple plays. If you try for the home-run pass every time, good teams are going to be in position to pick it off," Bogas said. "They probably scored three transition goals. Giving three goals to that team is not a good idea."

Reynaert made 30 saves, while Braunlich had five.


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