Few things have worked out well for the Albert Lea Thunder since the team hit the ice last season, but now the team is hoping its latest move might lead it to a more successful season.

A new season with new players brought optimism to the Albert Lea Thunder at the beginning of the 2009 campaign, but 11 games into the season the Thunder was off to a 2-9 start and team owner Barry Soskin decided a new direction was needed.

Soskin fired head coach Brad Zangs and promoted assistant coach Chuck Likenheld to the head coach position. It was a change Soskin and others on the team felt necessary as the team appeared on course for another poor season.

The Thunder finished 4-49-5 last season in its expansion year, but returned with an upgraded roster that featured five players from the national champion Little Caesar’s Major Midget team. Expectations were raised but the team was losing just as before.

Under Zangs things had grown stagnant on the team. Practices had become routine. Some on the team, like second-year forward Jake Armijo, are enthused to learn a new system.

“Every day I’m coming to the rink super excited on what we’re going to do,” Armijo said.

Linkenheld took over Tuesday and already the team feels his presence raised morale in the locker room.

“Everybody in the locker room is upbeat about it,” said second-year Thunder player Niko Kapetanovic. “It seems like we’re getting a fresh start and the guys are pretty happy about that.”

Linkenheld is a Schaumburg, Ill. native who played collegiately at Merrimack College in the mid-80s. Following his college career he moved into coaching with a AA hockey team in Schaumberg. He went on to coach Team Illinois, Chicago Young Americans and Chicago Mission, and has spent the last 11 years at the AAA level.

Likenheld met Soskin this summer when Soskin asked for his help with a tryout camp in Chicago. Eventually the scouting position led to an assistant coach position and Linkenheld joined the team this season.

Linkenheld is presented with a bevy of challenges and at the top of the list is special teams play.

Of the 54 goals Albert Lea has allowed this season 19 have been power-play goals, which is about 35 percent of the total goals allowed and ranks as the second-most in the NAHL. The Thunder has the worst penalty kill in the league and Linkenheld knows that has to change quickly if the team is going to compete in the Central Division.

“Special teams as a whole have to be much better, that’s one of my goals right now,” Linkenheld said. “The other thing is we’re giving up an average of like 33 or 35 shots a game — too much. We’re giving up too much time and space.”

Linkenheld will also have to find a way for the team to score, another area Albert Lea has struggled in this season. The Thunder have scored 28 goals this season, by far the fewest in the league and ranks near the bottom in shots.

“For us, one of the things that I’ve noticed in their offensive production is they don’t get enough traffic to the net,” Likenheld said. “We’ve had a couple goaltenders have big nights against us because they can see every shot. At this level if you’re shooting straight up at a guy and he can see it, it’s easy to stop the puck. Tips, screens and rebounds are 70 percent of goals, so we need to get traffic in front and get tips, screens and rebounds.”

Now the challenge is for Linkenheld to improve the team and begin to move players on to the collegiate level.

“Like he told us in the locker room, he’s here for us,” Armijo said. “He’s here to move us on. What he has to do to get us to win, he’s going to do.”