Photo Credit: Bob Davies
In Sault Ste Marie, Ontario on Wednesday, March 29th, the Soo Thunderbirds took to the ice leading the Blind River Beavers 3 – 0 in the west division semi final looking to sweep the Beavers four straight for the second season in a row.
48 seconds past the midway mark of the opening period from the left blueline, Michael Gallagher fires a snapshot along the ice throught traffic to find the back of Thunderbird netminder Landon Miller’s net to give the Beavers a 1 – 0 lead. Nicholas Brady drew the lone helper on Gallagher’s second of the postseason. 41 seconds into the middle stanza with a scramble in front of Blind River goaltender Charlie Burns’ crease, Dharan Cap picks up a loose puck to slide the tying goal under the Beaver goaltender to even the game 1 – 1. Justin Mauro and Jackson Truchan added the assists on Cap’s fourth of the playoffs. Evan Fraccaro sinks the go-ahead goal with 59 seconds remaining the period from the top of the right faceoff circle to trickle from Miller’s five hole to send the Beavers into the second intermission uup 2 – 1 with his first of the postseason. Gavin Rocha contributed on Fraccaro’s goal. At 1:53 of the third from behind the goal line to the right of Burns’ net in the corner, Wyatt Marlow fires a wrist shot to find the back of Blind River’s net between the post and the top corner to tie the game 2 – 2 for the Thunderbirds. Daniel Beaupre and Callum McAuley notched the helper on Marlow’s first goal of the playoffs. On a Blind River powerplay 95 seconds into overtime, Andrey Manov picks up a rebound off of Landon Miller’s right pad to slide the game winner past the Soo netminder right pad to give the Beaver’s a 3 – 2 game four win. Evan Fraccaro earned his second point of the game on Manov’s first goal of the playoffs. Beaver goaltender Charlie Burns stopped 17 of 19 shots in the game four win while Thunderbird netminder Landon Miller turned away 17 of 20 shots in the Soo’s first loss of the 2023 postseason.
Game five will now head back to Blind River with the Soo leading the series 3 – 1 on Friday, March 31st in a 7:00 p.m puck drop.
