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In a midweek west division clash, the third place (12-7-1-1) Soo Thunderbirds hosted the second place (12-7-1-1) Blind River Beavers at the John Rhodes Centre in Sault Ste Marie on Wednesday, November 9th. The Thunderbirds took to the ice just one point behind the Beavers who sit second in the west with 27 points.
With a pass from the line blueline by defenceman Tyler Boudreau, Ethan Novello scores his fifth of the season by tipping a Wyatt Marlow pass by Beaver goaltender Charlie Burns catcher to give the Soo a 1 – 0 lead at 17:41 of the opening period. With a pass from behind Thunderbird netminder Landon Miller’s net from Caleb Minns, Blind River’s Trevor Zimmer fires a snapshot thru Miller’s five hole to even the game 1 – 1 for the visitors 63 seconds into the middle stanza. On a powerplay, Dharan Cap catches a cross ice pass from Daniel Beaupre to slide the Thunderbirds go-head goal at 12:20 of the second to give the Soo a 2 – 1 lead. Jackson Truchan added the other helper on Cap’s 13th of the season. 1:56 into the final period and both teams four on four serving penalties, Tyler Boudreau splits the Beavers defence to slide the Thunderbirds third through Burns five hole to bring the lead to 3 – 1. Beaupre and Marlow notched the contributors on Bourdeau’s first of the 2022 – 2023 NOJHL season.
At 13:53 of the period, Michael Gallagher picks up a turnover at the Soo blueline to fire Blind River’s second of the contest from the top of the left faceoff circle to pull the Beavers within one. Matthew Green drew the lone assist on Gallagher’s goal. Ethan Pegg picks up his own rebound off of Miller’s left pad to lift the tying goal past Miller’s catcher with 6.4 seconds remaining the game to tie the game 3 – 3 for the Beavers to send the midweek clash into overtime. Green and Minns added the helpers on Pegg’s tying goal. All alone to the side of the Thunderbirds’ net, Gallagher slides the overtime game winner under Miller to give the Beavers a 4 – 3 win and two point lead in the west division standings. Joshua Thompson and Pegg contributed on Gallagher’s game winner. Blind River goaltender Charlie Burns turned away 30 of 33 shots in the win while Soo netminder Landon Miller stopped 22 of 26 shots in the loss.
The Thunderbirds next opponents will be the visiting Cochrane Crunch on Saturday, November 12th in a 7:00 p.m puck drop.
