Thunder rolling into NIHL season

The Soo Thunder will open the Northern International Hockey League season in late October and the team is set and ready to go.

After spending last season in the Northern Ontario Bantam Hockey League as a major bantam team, the Thunder will now look to developing a new group as minor bantams.

The Thunder opened camp with 55 players before slowly cutting down to the 18-man roster they will open the season with. The team features five new players that were not with the AAA Pee Wee team last season.

Thunder coach Sal Lamantea was pleased with the turnout for the camp and sees the group having an easy time adjusting to some of the newcomers to the program.

Lamantea noted that, when making his final decision, he brought each player not making the team into a meeting with the coaches and outlined their strengths, so not to discourage the player from looking to try out for next year's Soo Thunder roster. He added that he was very impressed with the way the team has come together early on.

The 2006-07 Soo Thunder roster breaks down as follows:

FORWARDS

Patrick Walling Derek Battagin Alex Morrison Alec D'Orazio Matthew Zalewski Mark Orazetti Anthony Butorac Kurtis Barbarie Jake Wright Kevin Rooley

DEFENCE

Chad Thibodeau Aiden Wright Justin Cooke Kyle Paat Kristian Prasek Daniel Pyymaki

GOALTENDERS

Stormer Santana Paul Orlando

The Thunder open the NIHL season on October 28 and 29 with a pair of games at home against Marquette.