Thunder putting the pieces together
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Travis Horvath made his 2012-13 WOAA senior men’s hockey season debut in Goderich Friday night.
The TMHI grad made the most of it scoring a natural hat trick for the Tillsonburg Thunder in a 10-2 road win over the Pirates.
“It was my career-high in goals (with the Thunder), for sure. Set some milestones in that game,” smiled Horvath, who has been juggling fourth-year UWO time commitments with hockey. “I was playing with (Kevin) Galerno and (Adam) Vandepoele. That helped a lot, they’re solid players. It was just one of those nights when the puck hit my stick and it was just going in the net. It was just one of those nights.
“It was a solid first game back – my first game since playoffs last year. I’ve been really busy with school. It’s just been crunch-time this year.”
A slimmed-down Horvath started practicing with the team once-a-week in mid-October, working to get his ‘hockey legs’ back after a summer of working as a greenskeeper at a golf course (Kananaskis) in Alberta over the summer.
“It feels great to be back and playing again. I just like playing here. This is my hometown and I like all the guys here.
“With school and all of that, it’s just kind of nice to get away from it a bit. Hockey’s always been that for me – kind of a get-away.”
The ‘get-away’ ends in December with another set of exams. He plans to return to the Thunder for a couple months, but will be in the same school-first situation in February and April.
“School comes first though, right? Last year I was able to balance it out, but this year there was just so much more work. It was hard to balance the two… as much as I’d love to play. I do love it, and I love playing in my hometown.”
First-place Clinton Radars visited the Tillsonburg Kinsmen Memorial Arena Saturday night, defeating the Thunder 6-2 in a game that was, overall, closer than the score might indicate.
“Tonight was more of a fast-paced game and I’ve still got to improve with that, get back in shape,” said Horvath. “It’s not quite where I want to be… where I was middle of the season last year. When I’ve got my conditioning back, the speed will come with it.
“Goderich, I heard they’ve been struggling for guys. There was a huge difference in tonight’s game. Clinton’s a solid team and they’ve got a lot of good players. They’re better than they were last year.”
Clinton and Tillsonburg played a 1-1 first period and shots on goal were even.
“It was good start to the hockey game, and it was exactly what we had prepared for,” said Thunder coach Tim Christo. “Tight checking, a few chances here and there, traded goals in the first. Neither team really gave up a lot of good scoring chances.”
A five-minute Clinton power-play, following an injury to one of their players in the second period, shifted momentum.
“We almost killed it off, but they got a goal, and then got another couple quick goals.”
Clinton’s third goal in a span of 3:16 gave the visitors a commanding 4-1 lead.
“That seemed to be when the wind came out of our sails,” said Christo. “They built confidence and seemed like we played catch-up the rest of the second period. In the third period we got going a bit, and put a little pressure on, but…”
Shots on goal, 32-28 after two periods with Tavistock leading 5-1, were even again in a 1-1 third. The Thunder, switching starting goalie Mike Slaats for backup Andrew McQueen for the final period, finished with a 12-11 advantage.
The Thunder (8-3-1), after a confidence-boosting 5-3 win over Tavistock last week and Friday’s win in Goderich, are solidly in fourth place in the South Division, two points behind Tavistock with a game in hand, and four points up on Petrolia. That’s where they want to stay – in the top half of the standings.
“We’ve got a tough December coming up,” said Christo. “If we win some hockey games, we can stay near the top. If we lose some… playoff positioning becomes all-important. We’ve got to stay in that top half.
“We beat Tavistock, and I like our chances against (Clinton). Tonight (Ryan) Gaertner was out and (Chris) McGuffin’s got the flu, so they didn’t play... So we were short one line tonight. Bring those guys back and I like our chances.
“It’s coming – I like the atmosphere on this team, the bonding, everything. There’s a lot of good elements that you need in order to be successful that I see it on this team. But there’s also a few things we need to address.”