Thunder can’t bounce back

Tim Graham

Wednesday, Jan. 15, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

Vehicles stay on the road only so long with pilots asleep at the wheel.

And the Thundermobile is starting to swerve.

With the most miserable game in franchise history still in the rearview mirror, the Las Vegas Thunder seemed dazed after catching the exhaust of the Milwaukee Admirals Tuesday night in a 5-3 loss at the Thomas & Mack Center.

Las Vegas was attempting to bounce back from Saturday's 10-1 loss at Long Beach. In that loss, the Thunder attained franchise lows by giving up 10 goals, losing by a nine-goal margin and allowing six goals in one period.

After losing again Tuesday night, frustrations were obvious.

"This was a pride test tonight," Thunder general manager Bob Strumm said after a closed-door meeting with head coach Chris McSorley. "I'm more upset tonight than I was Saturday."

What had Strumm angriest were performances he deemed unacceptable.

"Some of our veteran guys were not putting in an effort altogether," said Strumm, an executive not averse to shaking up an organization. "One in particular could have won the game all by himself, didn't even give a s--- and we lose the game."

Strumm declined to specify which player he was referring to, but right wing and assistant captain Patrice Lefebvre was willing to guess.

"He probably was talking about me," Lefebvre said after overhearing Strumm's displeasure with the team's vets. "And if he was, he's 100 percent wrong.

"Every time we lose now, 'We didn't give an effort.' It's the same phrase we hear again, again, again. It's like we don't want to win the game; we don't give an effort; we try to lose. And it's not true."

Which leaves the Thunder, now 24-17-2, wondering why they can't locate the accelerator.

"We're just ... We seem a little too tentative," left wing and assistant captain Darcy Loewen said. "We're lacking confidence. It's frustrating and confusing because before these last two games, we were playing well."

The Thunder jumped to a lead on Ken Quinney's 17th goal of the season. Martin Gendron picked up his 21st assist on the play, which came just 1:14 into the first period.

The lead, however, was short-lived. Milwaukee fired four unanswered goals past Las Vegas goaltender Andrei Mezin, with Tony Hrkac assisting on all of them. Two of the goals were scored by Larry DePalma, including a short-handed score.

The Thunder, which held a 46-27 advantage in the shots department, bounced back in the third period on a pair of power-play goals. Gendron recorded his team-leading 23rd goal of the season off assists from Darin Smith and Lefebvre at 6:42 to make the score 4-2. Barely four minutes later, Brent Gretzky tallied his fourth off assists from Quinney and Kent Fearns, cutting the Admirals' lead to one.

But Milwaukee's Dave Mackey ended the scoring at 17:46 with his seventh goal of the season.

Mezin, the team's top netminder due to Parris Duffus' departure to the Phoenix Coyotes, stopped 22 of 27 shots and fell to 4-5-0. Milwaukee's Danny Lorenz, the reigning International Hockey League goalie of the week, saved 43 of 46 shots and raised his record to 19-13-3.

"We were capable of winning tonight's game," McSorley said. "We need a concerted effort from 18 guys each and every night. Tonight, some punched the time clock and went to the steel mill. A few others went to the beauty salon."