With the west division Soo Thunderbirds both losing to the east division Powassan Voodoos over the February 4th and the Blind River Beavers losing to the Soo Eagles on February 5th, the first place (20-5-2-3) Thundebirds and third place (14-11-2) Beavers return to west division action in a midweek clash in Sault Ste Marie on Wednesday, February 9th at the John Rhodes Centre in NOJHL action.

All alone in front of Blind River’s crease, Thunderbird Michael Chaffay fires a wrist shot over Beaver goaltender Patirck Boivin’s left shoulder to give the Soo a 1 – 0 lead 12:59 into the opening period. Cooper Foster added the lone helper on Chaffay’s eleventh of the season. At 18:48 of the second from the left faceoff circle with the Soo on a powerplay, Cooper Foster sends the Thunderbirds into the second intermission up to 2 – 0 with a cross ice pass from Mason Chitaroni. Captain Brock Santa Maria added the other contributor on Foster’s tenth of the 2021 – 2022 season.

Only 42 seconds into the final period, Michael Chaffay increases the hosts lead to 3 – 0 with finding the back of the Beavers net over Boivin’s left shoulder with Kyle Trottier and Foster notching the assists on Chaffay’s second of the contest. With 28 seconds left in the game, Meguire Naughton tips an Alexander Tingay wrist shot from the left blueline past Thunderbird netminder Noah Zeppa to pull Blind River within two. Alfred Rotiroti skates on a Thunderbird breakaway from his own blueline to fire a wrist shot over Boivin’s left shoulder to give the Soo a 4 – 1 win over the Beavers. Trottier drew the lone helper on Rotiroti’s sixth of the season. Patrick Boivin stopped 29 of 33 shots in the Beaver’s twelfth loss of the season while Noah Zeppa turned away 25 of 26 shots in the Thunderbirds 21st win of the season.

Beaver coach Kyle Brick told Saultsports that “I really liked our game tonight, I thought we controlled play for most of the first and second, but with that being said you can’t make mistakes against that team, they make you pay. A couple undisciplined penalties and a lost battle was the difference, not having Ethan Pegg hurts as well.”

“Zeppa played a great game behind us tonight and it showed out there. We came out a little slow but eventually we picked it up and just played our game, the physicality out there looked good on both ends and we had some guys that usually aren’t physical getting gritty out there and we looked like a team out there, said Thunderbird defenseman Andrew Gibson.

The Thunderbirds return to action on Saturday, February 12th when they host the east division French River Rapids in a 4:15 p.m puck drop at the John Rhodes Centre.

Photo Bob Davies