In Sudbury, Ontario on Tuesday, October 7th, the eighth place (4-2-0-1) Soo Thunderbirds hit the ice to face the ninth place (4-3) Sudbury Cubs at the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League 2025 Showcase. The two clubs had met once previously in the 2025–2026 regular season, with the Thunderbirds skating to a 5–2 victory back in Sault Ste. Marie.
This time, however, it was the Cubs who flipped the script.
At 8:34 of the first period, Kaedyn Long snapped a shot from the right faceoff circle that was stopped by Soo goaltender Ryan Hicks, but Sudbury’s Caden DuBreuil was right there to bury the rebound for a shorthanded marker and a 1–0 Cubs lead. Tyson Rismond picked up the lone assist on the goal.
Rismond struck again early in the second, firing a low shot from the right circle that found its way under Hicks’ blocker to double the Sudbury lead just 1:29 into the frame. Nolan Newton and Jonathan Varela collected the assists on Rismond’s first of the season.
The Thunderbirds answered back midway through the period. At 11:50, Adam Pszeniczny pounced on a loose puck between the faceoff circles and fired it home unassisted for his fourth of the season, cutting the deficit to 2–1.
Just over two minutes later, the Cubs restored their two-goal cushion on the power play. Nolan Newton capitalized on a lively bounce off the end boards, sliding the puck past Hicks for his ninth of the season at 13:54. Daks Klinkhammer and Rismond assisted on the play.
Before the second period expired, the Thunderbirds pulled within one. With 45 seconds remaining and on the man advantage, Deven Jones-McDonald lifted a shot over the glove of Sudbury goaltender Mateo Beites to make it 3–2. Frankie Reda earned the assist on Jones-McDonald’s sixth of the season.
In the third period, the Cubs sealed the victory with another power play tally. With Hicks down in the crease, Daks Klinkhammer roofed a shot into the top corner for his seventh of the season at 11:32. Eidan MacCartney and Noah Kohan drew assists as Sudbury skated away with a 4–2 win.
Beites was solid in goal for the Cubs, stopping 20 of 22 shots, while Hicks turned aside 25 of 29 for the Thunderbirds.
Following the loss, Soo Thunderbirds head coach Jamie Henderson told Saultsports, “we competed for sixty minutes and kept pushing back. Special teams hurt us tonight unfortunately. Hicksy played great and made some big saves when we needed them to keep us in the game.”
The Thunderbirds will look to rebound on Wednesday, October 8th when they face the Blind River Beavers at 1:00 p.m. in Sudbury, while the Sudbury Cubs will take on the Powassan Voodoos later that evening at 6:45 p.m. to wrap up their 2025 NOJHL Showcase schedule.
