Photo: Saultsports
At the John Rhodes Centre in Sault Ste Marie, the fourth place (22-9-2-1) Soo Thunderbirds hit the ice to face their cross border rivals, the fifth place (20-15-1-1) Soo Eagles in a west division Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League contest on Saturday, January 13th. In their last meeting across the St Mary’s River, the Thunderbirds needed overtime to earn the 2 – 1 win over the Eagles on January 5th at the Pullar Stadium.
At 2:24 of the opening period, Grayson Ebrahim catches a pass from Jackson Truchan from the right corner to give the Thunderbirds a 1 – 0 lead while sliding the hosts first goal under Eagle goaltender Anthony Zolezzi’s left pad. Defenseman Quinn Myles drew the other assist on Ebrahim’s eighteenth of the 2023 – 2024 season. With 48 seconds remaining in the second period, Grayson Ebrahim sent a pass from the right boards to Sam Lake in between the faceoff circles to lift the Thunderbirds second over Zolezzi’s right shoulder to give the Thunderbirds a 2 – 0 lead with Jackson Truchan registering his second helper of the contest. Scoring his seventh of the season, Eagle forward Jack Ohlund crosses the Thunderbird blueline to fire the Eagles first goal of the game with a snapshot from the top of the right faceoff circle to find the back of Thunderbird Kolton Bourret’s net through the Bourret’s five hole to pull the visitors within one at 12:38 of the third. Tyler Fortson had the lone assist on Ohlund’s goal.
Off of winning the faceoff to the right of the Thunderbird net, Jack Paweski sinks the tying goal from the right faceoff circle over Bourret’s left shoulder to tie the game 2 – 2 for the Eagles. Nolan Hendry contributed on Paweski’s 13th of the season at 11:14. With the Eagles on a powerplay, Paweski picks up a rebound off of Bourret to lift the Eagles game winner over the Thunderbird netminder’s catcher to give the visitors a 3 – 2 win at 16:01 of the third.Hendry and Ohlund added the assists on Paweski’s second of the contest. Eagle goaltender Anthony Zolezzi’s stopped 27 of 29 shots in the win while Thunderbird netminder Kolton Bourret turned away 19 of 22 shots in the loss.
Next up for the Thunderbirds will be on Thursday, January 18th when they hit the highway to take on the first place west division Sudbury Cubs with a 7:05 p.m puck drop.
