Thunder off to 0-3 start; Nedved, Lefebvre injured

Tim Graham

Friday, Oct. 16, 1998 | 11:02 a.m.

Bobby invited a buddy over to his place, but Butchie refused to play nice.

In the first meeting between the former associates, Butch Goring guided his Utah Grizzlies past Bob Bourne's Las Vegas Thunder 5-1 at the Thomas & Mack Center Thursday night.

Bourne used to be Goring's assistant -- first with the Las Vegas Thunder in 1993-94 and later with the Grizzlies. The two also played for the New York Islanders, winning four Stanley Cups together in the 1980s.

"It doesn't matter who it's against," Bourne said. "We gotta get a victory. We gotta start playing as a team."

But if losing to an old friend and plummeting to 0-3 on the season wasn't bad enough, Bourne lost his top two offensive weapons in the process. Center Petr Nedved and right wing Patrice Lefebvre left in the first period. Nedved hyperextended his elbow; Lefebvre twisted his left knee.

Lefebvre, the IHL's reigning MVP and scoring leader, said he could miss the next three to four weeks after catching his skate in a rut near the boards. It is uncertain how long Nedved, the Pittsburgh Penguins holdout, will be gone.

"No blackjack for three days," was all Nedved said.

Despite the key injuries, Bourne saddled the majority of the blame for the Thunder's poor start.

"I feel really bad," Bourne said. "I'm making a lot of mistakes. The feeling I'm getting watching them play right now is they don't know what to do in certain situations. That's my job: to make sure they do know.

"They're making some mistakes on their own. They're not being cohesive. But that's my job."

For the third time in as many games, Las Vegas allowed its opponent to score first, when Utah's John Purves beat Konstantin Simchuk at 18:03 of the first period.

The Thunder got in serious trouble at the end of the second period. After a fracas with former Thunder enforcer Rhett Trombley with 2.7 seconds left in the period, Louie DeBrusk was assessed 27 penalty minutes for instigating, fighting, a misconduct and a game misconduct. Captain Kevin Kaminski also was slapped with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.

With the Thunder shorthanded on the ice and without the services of Nedved and Lefebvre, the Grizzlies doubled their lead at 4:38 of the second period with only their second power-play goal of the season.

The Thunder rebounded at 7:56, when J.F. Jomphe recorded his first goal of the season.

But Las Vegas' losses became increasingly more evident as the period wore on. Utah, which outshout Las Vegas 19-5 in the second, finished with three straight goals from Mick Vukota, Micah Aivazoff and Colin Chaulk -- the first of the season for each -- in a span of less than four minutes.

"We really need a lot of work," Bourne said.