Thunder beat Innisfail to end season

By Rob Vogt
It is not how you start but how you finish.
For the Claresholm Under-11 Thunder hockey team, they finished strong with a convincing 7-4 victory over Innisfail in their last game of the season in Central Alberta Hockey League Tier-6 play.
The Thunder hosted Innisfail on Sunday, March 10, jumping out to an early 2-0 lead after the first period, on goals by Cruz Kornfeld, assisted by Carter Zentner; and Dakota Sundquist unassisted.
However, Innisfail poured in four straight goals to take a 4-2 lead with 6:46 left in the second period.
Then Claresholm came to life.
With just over two minutes left in the second period, Heath Flynn closed the gap to 4-3, with help from Alonso Quinteros Alvarez and Shaeya Flynn; then with 14 seconds left in the period Sundquist tied the game at 4-4, assisted by Alexis Hutchison and Lincoln Groves.
It was all Claresholm in the final 20 minutes as Kyden Vandervalk scored what proved to be the game winner with just under eight minutes to play, assisted by Hutchison and Sundquist.
Three minutes later Avery Gibson-Morrison made the score 6-4, with help from Groves and Carter Zentner; and three minutes after that Vandervalk made the score 7-4, assisted by Shaeya Flynn and Heath Flynn.
That’s how the score ended.
Goaltender Talon Cross was solid in net once again, making 22 saves for the victory.
The teams met a day earlier in Innisfail in the first half of their home-and-home games, as Claresholm lost to their hosts by a score of 5-2.
Innisfail led 2-0 after 20 minutes, the teams traded goals in the second period, and Innisfail pulled away in the third period to skate away with the 5-2 win.
Scoring for Claresholm were Lincoln Groves, unassisted in the second period; and Shaeya Flynn, assisted by Rowynn Zentner in the third period.