After 4 – 1 loss to the Blind River Beavers on the road in Blind River on Saturday, March 6th afternoon matinee for the Soo Thunderbirds, the Soo returned to Blind River for their second game of the weekend 24 hours later on March 7th at the Blind River Community Centre for a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League 2:00 p.m puck drop.
At 18:47 of the first on a Beaver power play, Josh Maine slides first goal of the season under Thunderbird netminder Scott Young to give Blind River a 1 – 0 lead. Mason Chitaroni and Nicholas Jameus notched the contributors on Maine’s power play goal. Sinking the tying goal 3:56 into the second, Cameron Dutkiewicz picks up his own rebound off of Beaver goaltender Gavin Disano to even the game 1 – 1 on a Soo power play with Kaden Dundas and Warner Young had the helpers on Dutkiewicz’s fifth of the season. Scoring his 11th of the with an unassisted goal, Thunderbird veteran forward Cooper Syml picks up his own rebound in front of Disano for the visitors go-ahead goal at 11:11. Giving the Soo a 3 – 1 lead was and registering his second of the game, Smyl finds the back of the Beavers net at 12:24 of the middle stanza with Thunderbird power play goal. Dylan Parsons and Brock Santa Maria added the assists on Syml’s goal.
Blind River’s Devin Mauro catches a cross ice pass from Jameus to pull the Beavers within one with a goal behind Young at 6:20 of the third. Maine drew the other helper on Mauro’s goal. With the hosts on a power play 33 seconds before the halfway mark of the period from the top of the left faceoff circle with Blind River’s Jacob Kelly playing defense for the Beavers, the 20 year old Barrie, Ontario native fires a wrist shot from the left blueline to find the back of the Soo’s net over Young’s left shoulder to tie the game 3 – 3. Noah Minns and Chitaroni had the assists on Kelly’s 12th of the season. Brock Santa Maria gives the Thunderbirds a 4 – 3 lead with back hand over Disano right shoulder 12:40 into the period with Parsons notching the lone contributor on Santa Maria’s fifth of the season. Thomas Michaurd slides an unassisted goal for the Beavers fourth of the game under Young’s left pad to tie the game 4 – 4 with 68 seconds remaining in the afternoon matinee. Eleven seconds later, Michaud scores his second of the game and fourth of the season with 57 seconds left in the game to give the Beavers a 5 – 4 win over the Soo. Matt Cato and Noah Minns had the assists on Michaud’s game winner. Scott Young turned away 31 of 36 shots in the Soo’s second straight loss to the Beavers while Sault Ste Marie, Ontario native Gavin Disano stopped 35 of 39 shots in second straight win against the Thunderbirds.
Blind River coach Kyle Brick told Saultsports.com that “to be honest I thought the game was a bit of a sleeper until the third. We ended up playing the whole third with three forwards on defence, so a huge shout out to Mauro, Kelly and Adam’s. I totally loved Michaud’s game, kid competes every shift and it was nice to see him rewarded for his work. We brought him in to be an impact guy and that’s exactly what he has done.”
“We were all over them from the first to the second and in the third we got into some penalties and our emotions got to us. They didn’t beat us today, we beat ourselves, added Thunderbird forward Ethan Novello.
The Thunderbirds and Beavers will now wait for NOJHL COVID protocols to see who their next opponents will be in the month of March in junior ‘A’ hockey action.
