Photo Credit: Freeze Frame Photos
The Soo Thunderbirds made the trip east to Blind River for a rare Tuesday night matchup on October 27, but the Blind River Beavers came away with a convincing 6-1 victory in the teams’ first meeting of the 2026-2027 Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League (NOJHL) season.
Entering the contest, the Thunderbirds held second place in the NOJHL standings with an 11-3-0-2 record, while the Beavers sat seventh at 6-7-1. Despite the difference in the standings, Blind River delivered a strong performance on home ice, building an early lead and continuing to find the back of the net throughout the game.
Beavers Strike First
The Beavers opened the scoring at 7:30 of the first period when Wyatt Jarratt netted his second goal of the season. Jarratt’s unassisted marker gave Blind River a 1-0 advantage, a lead the home side carried into the first intermission.
Blind River carried that momentum into the second period, scoring just 1:08 after the opening faceoff. Alex Ivanov recorded his sixth goal of the season, with Ryder Hill and Braden Yudt picking up the assists, to extend the Beavers’ lead to 2-0.
At 9:49, Alex Proulx added another goal for Blind River, scoring his second of the season off assists from Malcolm McCrae and Camden Cowan. The Beavers continued to apply pressure, and Ivanov struck again at 14:47, recording his second goal of the night and seventh of the season. Ilian Danilov and Jarratt assisted on the play, with Jarratt collecting his second point of the game.
With four unanswered goals, Blind River had built a commanding 4-0 advantage midway through the contest.
Thunderbirds Get on the Board
The Thunderbirds responded on the power play at 16:36 of the second period. Jackson Mead scored his sixth goal of the season, with Gavin Killoran and Adam Pszeniczny earning the assists, to put Soo on the scoreboard and cut the deficit to 4-1.
However, the Beavers quickly restored their four-goal cushion.
At 19:28, McCrae scored his second goal of the season, finishing a play set up by Cowan and Jarratt. The goal gave Jarratt his third point of the game and sent Blind River into the second intermission with a 5-1 lead.
Beavers Complete the Victory
The third period saw the Beavers add one more goal to their total. At 12:19, Hill scored his 11th goal of the season on the power play, with Ivanov and Caleb Walker collecting the assists.
The goal capped off a six-goal performance for Blind River, which limited the Thunderbirds to a single marker despite Soo generating 39 shots on goal.
In net, Blind River’s Sam Carreiras-Pata turned aside 38 of the 39 shots he faced to deliver a strong performance in the Beavers’ victory.
For the Thunderbirds, Cam Boville stopped 16 of the 20 shots before Nathan Maguire entered in relief. Maguire made 20 saves on 22 shots as Soo fell on the road.
Looking Ahead
The Beavers will look to carry their winning performance into their next matchup on Friday, October 30, when they travel to Iroquois Falls to take on the Storm.
The Thunderbirds will have a little more time before returning to action. Soo’s next scheduled opponent is the Espanola Paper Kings on Friday, November 6, as the Thunderbirds look to bounce back from Tuesday’s loss.
Blind River’s six-goal effort gave the Beavers an important result against one of the NOJHL’s top teams, while the Thunderbirds will look to regroup ahead of their next contest.
