Photo Credit: Freeze Frame Photos
Coming off a 5 – 4 overtime win on Saturday, October 28th over the visiting Timmins Rock, the second place (12-4-2-1) Soo Thunderbirds who sit one point back of the Sudbury Cubs with 28 took to the ice at the John Rhodes Centre on Friday, November 3rd to host the third place (13-6) Blind River Beavers in a west division matchup.
At 4:16 of the opening period, Grayson Ebrahim lifts the opening goal over Blind River goaltender Iain Wintle’s blocker after catching a pass from behind the Beavers net from Jackson Truchan to give the Thunderbirds a 1 – 0 lead. Newly acquired Charlie Munroe had the other assist on Ebrahim’s tenth of the season. On a Thunderbird powerplay with 2:07 remaining in the second period, defenseman Candon O’Neill fires a snapshot from the right blueline to be tipped over Wintle’s blocker through traffic by Soo forward Grayson Ebrahim to give the Thunderbirds their 13th win of the season. Jackson Truchan registered the second helper on Ebrahim’s second of the game. Beaver goaltender Iain Wintle turned away 28 of 30 shots in Blind River’s seventh loss of the season. Thunderbird netminder Kolton Bourret made 38 saves for his second shutout of the season in the Soo’s 2 – 0 win.
Thunderbird assistant coach Jamie Henderson told Saultsports that “Kolton was outstanding once again. He’s in a nice groove for sure. He works so hard, and he’s getting rewarded. Our penalty kill was huge tonight, and we had contributions from everyone up and down the lineup. With so many guys out injured, it’s been really nice to see guys continue to step up night in and night out.”
Beaver coach Kyle Brick said that “plain and simple it wasn’t good enough, we worked all week on implementing a game plan and we flat out failed to execute it tonight. Their best players were their best players tonight, ours were still on the bus. We need to start showing up in games that matter.”
Next up for the Beavers will be on Sunday, November 5th in a 2:00 p.m matinee when they host the Elliot Lake Vikings while the Thunderbirds face the Soo Eagles at the Pullar Stadium in a 7:30 p.m puck drop on Friday, November 10th.
