ROUND 1 �Ģ 14 & 15 June 2008
The New Zealand Ice Hockey League officially got underway this weekend, with Round 1 being held at the Dunedin Ice Stadium in Dunedin.
The Home town new team on the block the Dunedin Thunder hosted two time NZIHL Champions the Southern Stampede and last years runners up the Canterbury Red Devils.
On Saturday night in front of 400 fans the Dunedin Thunder burst out onto the ice with a light and sound show fitting the opening of a stage musical. Sadly for the Thunder that is where the show stopped.
The Southern Stampede came out strong, scoring two early goals to put the Thunder on the back foot from the beginning, the TickeDirect Southern Stampede never really looked threatened, only a few defensive errors gave the Thunder the opportunity to score.
The final score 8 - 2 to the TicketDirect Southern Stampede.
On Sunday the Thunder took on the might and international experience on the Canterbury Red Devils, who showed too much skill and class for the Thunder.
If front of 350 Thunder Fans, the Canterbury Red Devils once again scored early goals, leaving the Thunder playing catch up. The Thunder where able to capitalise on some defensive errors and where able to score 3 goals.
The final score Canterbury Red Devils 10 - Dunedin Thunder 3.
For their first time out the Dunedin Thunder showed some signs of what good be a very strong team, some great defensive work was able to restrict the more experienced teams for lengthy period throughout the games and also showed that they do have the fire power to score against two of the strongest teams in the league.
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