It has been a tough start to the New Zealand Ice Hockey League for the Thunder, sustaining four losses at the hands of table leaders Botany Swarm and the Stampede.
Last Sunday’s 7-3 loss to the Swarm perhaps did not reflect the game, and Thunder captain Matt Enright wants to continue on from that performance, when his team comes up against the Auckland Admirals in Dunedin tonight.
"I think we’ve got a really good opportunity," Enright said.
"We’re a hungry team for a win.
"It’s going to be all guns blazing when we come through [tonight]."
There had been plenty of positives to take from the Thunder’s opening rounds with a big focus this year on creating a healthy team culture to "funnel" throughout the club and its systems on the ice, Enright said.
"It’s going to be a tough road, but as long as we’ve got that positive team culture then we can power through those harder times.
"It’s a young development team but we’ve got plenty of talent.
"It’s going to be exciting for this coming weekend because we are playing Auckland Admirals on a big ice, so we can utilise that space to our advantage, because we’ve got some fast players on our team and we’ve pulled in some great imports."
Canadian imports Will Ellis and Ryan Wonfor had already made an impact and were the Thunder’s leading scorers with two goals each.
Ellis was backpacking around New Zealand — with his ice hockey gear in tow just in case — but had no plan to play, until he contacted the Thunder.
He and Wonfor had slotted seamlessly into the Thunder.
"It’s quite cool how that’s happened," Enright said.
"He’s all of a sudden been injected into that Thunder family, that Thunder life, with a busy schedule over the next sort of five or six weeks."
The Thunder plays the Admirals tonight and tomorrow at the Dunedin Ice Stadium.
