Photo: Freeze Frame Photos

With only two points separating the second and third in the west division, the third place (29-11-2-2) Soo Thunderbirds headed east for a Tuesday, February 7th contest against the second place (30-10-2-2) Blind River Beavers at the Blind River Community Centre.

With nine seconds remaining in the opening period, Justin Mauro fires an unassisted wrist shot through Beaver goaltender Charlie Burns five hole to give the Thunderbirds a 1 – 0 lead on Mauro’s ninth of the season. Blind River’s Joshua Thompson skates coast to coast to rifle a wrist shot over Soo netminder Landon Miller’s right shoulder from the far left side of the face off circle at 3:29 of the middle stanza to pull the Beavers even 1 – 1. Nicholas Brady drew the lone helper on Thompson’s 16th of the season. From behind the left of the Beavers’ net, Michael Chaffay sends a pass to Kaden Dundas over Burns’ blocker to give the Thunderbirds a 2 – 1 lead. Justin Mauro added the assist on Dundas’ go-ahead goal at 15:04 of the second. At 11:05 of the third and a scramble in front of the Thunderbird net with Miller facing backwards in his crease, Michael Gallagher lifts Blind River’s tying goal over a sprawling Miller to tie the game 2 – 2 for the Beavers. Thompson and Andrey Manov registered the contributors on Gallagher’s tying goal. With only 31 seconds remaining in the three on three overtime, Jacob Kovacs skates coast to coast to skate around a Thunderbird defender to lift the winning unassisted goal over Miller to give the Beavers a 3 – 2 overtime win and four point difference between the third place Thunderbirds and second place Beavers.

The Beavers will take to the road for a Friday, February 10th matchup in Elliot Lake against the Red Wings in a 7:00 p.m start while the Thunderbirds head to Espanola on Saturday, February 11th to meet the Paper Kings in a 7:30 p.m puck drop.