The Airdrie Techmation Thunder came close but they aren't smoking any cigars after their opening weekend of the 2022-2023 Heritage Junior Hockey League season.

The Thunder met a pair of North Division rivals in the Mountainview Colts and Sylvan Lake Wranglers to start the season and, although both games were very close, they were both losses for the Airdrie.

The Didsbury-based Colts were the opposition In Friday night's season opener at the Ron Ebbesen Arena.  Steve Bell opened the scoring for the Colts just past the 18-minute mark of the first period to give Mountainview a 1 - 0 lead after 20.

Hayden Sotheran made it 2 - 0 Colts less than four minutes into the second.  The game stayed that way until the Thunder's Aiden Moore scored on an assist from Dace Carlson with just over five minutes left in the game.  It was as close as the Thunder would get in a 2 - 1 loss.  Airdrie outshot the Colts 40 - 37 with Josh Feddema taking the loss between the pipes for the Thunder and Shaye Price getting the win for Mountainview.  

Last night (September 24) Airdrie travelled to Sylvan Lake to face the Wranglers.  The Thunder got off to a good start in this one when Joey Haden scored after being set up by Zachary Jones and Zach Couling as the game clock ticked past the two-minute mark of the first.  After that though, all the scoring, even if it was just two more goals, was done by the Wranglers.

Hudson Elgert scored in the second, then set up Zachary Daniels for the winner 7:59 into the third to give the Wranglers the 2 - 1 win.  The closeness of the game was shown on the shot clock with Airdrie firing 35 shots at Sylvan Lake goaltender Kaden Toussaint and the Wranglers taking 34 at Airdrie's Austin White. 

The Thunder will look for their first win next Friday, September 30th when they take on the Three Hills Thrashers at 8:00 pm in Airdrie's Ron Ebbesen Arena.     

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