In their final trip across the St Mary’s River during the 2021 – 2022 regular season, the first place (35-5-2-3) Soo Thunderbirds hit the ice on Saturday, March 26th against their cross border the second place (31-9-2-2) Soo Eagles at the Pullar Stadium for a west division contest.

With no scoring in the opening period, Colby Arbour sinks his fifth of the season after a Thunderbird two on one 1:46 into the second period to give the visitors a 1 – 0 lead. Youssef Chaouachi drew the lone helper on Arbour’s goal. With Sam Lake and Kaden Dundas on a Thunderbird two on one, Dundas fires a cross ice pass to Lake in the left faceoff circle to lift the Thunderbirds second and Lake’s eleventh of the season over a sprawling Eagle goaltender Gabe Rosek to bring the lead to 2 – 0. With 1.6 seconds remaining in the game and Rosek on the Eagles bench for an extra attacker, Kelsey Ouellet scores his 15th of the season into an empty Eagles net to give the Thunderbirds a 3 – 0 win. Dharan Cap notched the assist on Ouellet’s goal. Eagle goaltender Gaeb Rosek stopped 22 of 24 shots in the loss while Thunderbird Noah Metivier earned his fifth shutout of the season in the Thunderbirds 16th straight win with making 38 saves in the Thunderbirds 36th win of the 2021 – 2022 season. With their win in Sault Ste Marie, Michigan, the Soo Thunderbirds captured the 2021 – 2022 NOJHL’s regular season title and secured the first overall seed heading into the upcoming league playoffs.

The Thunderbirds will play their last regular season home game for 2021 – 2022 on Thursday, March 31st against the visiting Hearst Lumberjacks in a 7:00 p.m puck drop at the John Rhodes Centre.