Thunder looking forward to playoffs

By Tim Switzer, Leader-Post October 4, 2009

They may be a team that just finished with its first winning record in eight years, but members of the Regina Thunder certainly don't worry too much about such facts.

"I never even thought of it, until it was mentioned today," Regina head coach Erwin Klempner said Sunday after his team beat the Winnipeg Rifles 48-20 to finish the Prairie Football Conference season at 5-3. "The bottom line is we're in the playoffs, but it does tell us we're heading in the right direction. We won five games this year so we're in the upper echelon of the league and we compete with these guys."

This season is actually only the second in the Thunder's 10-year existence that it has finished with a winning record. Regina was 6-2 in 2002. But that season was cut short when the Thunder lost to the Saskatoon Hilltops in a semifinal game.

"Nobody ever remembers the regular-season games," said Klempner. "When you talk about whatever happened in 2009, they're going to talk about the playoff games."

The Thunder will try to give its fans something to talk about when it visits the Hilltops (7-1) for a PFC semifinal on Sunday. The Edmonton Wildcats (6-2) will play host to the Calgary Colts (5-3) in the other semifinal.

The post-season, said centre Jordy Kyle, was all that was on players' minds following Sunday's regular-season finale.

"I know for the team (a winning record) is a big thing, but for me personally, it's not," said Kyle. "Every game is the same -- you try and win. You want to be perfect, but as long as we're in the playoffs and fighting for the Canadian Bowl, that's what counts."

So even in his fifth year with the Thunder, finally finishing above .500 doesn't resonate at all with Kyle?

"I don't look at the record too much. I look at it as a game at a time," said the 6-foot-3, 270-pound lineman. "They're all big games and we treat them all the same so the record has never been that big a deal."

That wasn't the case for fifth-year receiver/kicker Jeff Bolen, who has missed most of the season with a knee injury.

"There have been so many years where it has been 2-6 or 3-5 so being 5-3 is a great place to start from," said Bolen, who is unlikely to play against Saskatoon in the post-season. "Going forward this is a great place for the team."