Photo Credit: Freeze Frame Photos
Coming off a 6 – 2 win at home over the visiting French River Rapids on Saturday, October 21st, the third place (10-3-2-1) Soo Thunderbirds hit the road with only one point ahead of the fourth place (11-5) Blind River Beavers with 22 points for an afternoon matinee in Blind River on Sunday, October 22nd in a west division matchup.
With 1:15 remaining in the opening period, Sam Lake picks up a loose puck in front of the Beavers net to lift his four of the season over sprawling Blind River goaltender Iain Wintle to give the Soo a 1 – 0 lead. Daniel Beaupre and Jame Legler added the helpers on Lake’s goal.
With a backhand from just inside the left faceoff circle, Thomas DeGagne finds the back of the Beavers net at 7:33 of the second for his fifth of the season to give the Thunderbirds a 2 – 0 lead. Beaupre registered his second point of the game with the lone assist on DeGagne’s goal. With the Soo shorthanded, Alex Remenda picks up a turnover at the Blind River blueline, Remenda fires a pass to Grayson Ebrahim from in front of the Beavers net to lift the visitors third over Wintle’s blocker to bring the Thunderbirds lead to 3 – 0 at 18:04 of the second. At 5:55 of third, Daniel Beaupre picks up rebound off of Beaver defenseman Tyler Vorstadt’s skate in front of Blind River’s net to lift the Soo’s fourth over Wintle’s catcher to increase the Soo’s lead to 4 – 0. Sam Lake added the helper on Beaupre’s seventh of the season.
Sault Ste Marie native Jakob Kovacs picks up a rebound off of Thunderbird netminder Kolton Bourret to close the gap to two of the Beavers at 12:13 of the period. Michael Gallagher and Evan Fraccaro drew the assists on Kovacs 13th of the season. With the Beavers on a six on four powerplay and Wintle on the bench for an extra attacker and the Thunderbirds shorthanded with serving a bench minor, Andrey Manov picks up his own rebound to find the back of Bourret’s net for his fourth of the season through the Soo netminder’s five hole to pull the Beavers within two at 14:41. Kovacs added the lone contributor on Manov’s powerplay goal. From just inside in the Beavers blueline and Wintle on the bench for an extra attacker, James Legler sinks his third of the season into the empty net to give the Thunderbirds a 5 – 2 win at 19:25. Blind River goaltender Iain Wintle stopped 15 of 19 shots in the Beavers fourth straight loss while Kolton Bourret turned away 40 of 42 shots in the Soo’s eleventh win of the 2023 – 2024 season.
Assistant coach Jamie Henderson told Saultsports that “we came out really flat and gave them a ton of chances, but Kolton was simply outstanding early. The game could have been over early almost, but we settled in and found our game. You need a balanced attack and it was great to see different guys step up tonight. Beaups played one of his best games of the season for sure and it was great to see Laker get rewarded with a pair.”
The Soo’s next opponent will be the Elliot Lake Red Wings on Tuesday, October 24th in Sault Ste Marie
