Columbia Daily Herald
03/14/2011 09:06:11 AM

The record setting trend continued for TNT’s season on Sunday night when they notched their seventh consecutive victory with a win over Team Lux by a score of 15-5. It marks the first seven game win streak in TNT’s storied franchise history. The win came in their typical fashion – opening up the scoring early and continuing heavily throughout the contest. Jim Fish had another big night posting 6 tallies with forward Danny Kunath adding another 4 markers in the win. With the scoring contribution coming from a number of different players, the big story of the night was TNT’s first full roster since late November. Fresh off the injured reserve list, TNT welcomed back forwards Ryan Lessnau (shoulder) and local fan favorite Brian Long (hand) who both underwent surgeries this past winter to repair their respective injuries. The team also saw the return of forward Brandon Latreille and defenseman Ryan Latreille who have been withheld from team activities for the past month due to a coach’s decision.

“It felt really good to get back out there. My hand still isn’t healed all the way yet, but I needed to get back so I could challenge [Jim] Fish for the scoring title,” said a confident Brian Long after posting a hat trick in the game. Much to the speculation of the TNT fan base, there is yet to be an official changing of the guard with Fish still holding the “interim” title as coach and GM, even with Long back. When asked about Fish’s role after the game Long simply put, “There’s nothing to talk about at this point. Let’s just say that Fish performed above expectations in regards to leading the team during my absence.”

In what is becoming a consistent form of play, goaltender Adam Weber played another solid game. With the win, Weber went on the register 10 saves on 15 shots. He continues to set career marks in the goals against column moving the average to 3.93 through 16 games this season. With such a commanding lead in the league, he is making a large bid to win the Brian Dorfman Memorial Trophy for outstanding performance by a goaltender during the regular season.

With playoffs only a few short weeks away, TNT will very much be the heavy favorite to win it all entering the tournament. In fact, it is more than likely going to be their title to lose. Coming within one win the past two seasons has this team ready for a championship title. These next two games will be very pivotal match ups when TNT will see back to back road games against second place North Stars. TNT is off this coming Sunday and does not play again until Wednesday, Mar. 23rd @ 8:55PM. Beer duty is TBD.

Notes: After being waived earlier this season when suffering his shoulder injury, forward Ryan Lessnau cleared re-entry waivers to re-join the team – his first game back since Nov. 14. …Jeff Day officially looks like a forward version Bill Houlder. …TNT is now 6-0 when scoring at least 12 goals.