Photo: Freeze Frame Photos

The second place (27-10-2-1) Soo Thunderbirds headed into a Friday, January 27th west division contest against the visiting fifth place (13-23-1-2) Elliot Lake Red Wings at the John Rhodes Centre in Sault Ste Marie with a 28 point lead in the standings over their visitors.

Adam Matar fires a wrist shot just inside the Thunderbird blueline at 16:26 of the first to give the Red Wings a 1 – 0 lead with Cameron Dial and Thomas Dimoulas adding the contributors on Matar’s powerplay goal. Only six seconds into a Soo powerplay, Thunderbird captain Brock Santa Maria fires a shot along the ice from the left faceoff circle to pull the hosts even 1 – 1 at 17:27 past Red Wing goaltender Cameron Smith. Ranon Joseph and Daniel Beaupre drew the assists on Santa Maria’s seventh of the season. With an Elliot Lake turnover, Ethan Novello picks up a loose puck to sink his tenth of the season 3:21 into the second with an unassisted Thunderbird goal to give the Soo a 2 – 1 lead. Red Wing Evan Dantas picks loose puck in between the faceoff circles in the Soo’s zone to find the back of Thunderbird netminder Kolton Bourret’s net to tie the game 2 – 2 for Elliot Lake 34 seconds into the third. Braden Twigg and Silas Crawford registered the contributors on Dantas’ powerplay goal.

Thunderbird defenseman Ranon Joseph comes out of the penalty box to pick up a loose puck to slide the Soo’s go-ahead goal under Smith to give the hosts a 3 – 2 lead. Beaupre and James Kearney added the assists on Joseph’s fourth of the season at 3:03. After a Elliot Lake two on one at the 4:39 mark, Zachary Vickerman catches a cross crease pass from Alex Antoine to lift the Red Wings tying goal past Bourret. Dimoulas had the other contributor on Vickerman’s tying goal. Daniel Beaupre picks up a Ranon Joseph rebound off of Smith to slide the Soo’s fourth under the Red Wing goaltender at 7:40 to give the Thunderbirds’ a 4 – 3 lead. Michael Chaffay had the second helper on Beaupre’s 13th of the season. Seven seconds after Beaupre’s goal, Youssef Chaouachi skates into the Elliot Lake zone to slide the Soo’s fifth under Smith to increase the lead to 5 – 3 at the 7:47 mark of the third. Veteran forward Dharan Cap had the lone assists on Chaouachi’s 13th of the season. With Silas Crawford dumping the puck into the Thunderbird zone, the Red Wing forward scores Elliot Lake’s fourth with a bounce three feet in front of Bourret to find the back of the net unassisted with a bounce over the Thunder Bay, Ontario natives stick 36 seconds before the midway mark of the period. Red Wing goaltender Cameron Smith stopped 37 of 42 shots in the loss while Thunderbird netminder Kolton Bourret turns aways 31 of 35 shots in the Soo’s 5 – 4 win at home.

The Thunderbirds return to action on Saturday, January 28th when they play host to the west division leaders, the Sudbury Cubs in a 7:00 p.m start at the John Rhodes Centre.