Photo Credit: Freeze Frame Photos
On Friday, March 15th, the west division Soo Thunderbirds hit the road for a three game road trip with their first stop in Timmins to face the east division Timmins Rock for their final three regular season games of the 2023 – 2024 NOJHL season. The Thunderbirds will meet the Sudbury Cubs in a west division semi final series starting on Thursday, March 21st in Sudbury while the Rock face the Iroquois Fall Storm in game one of a east division semi-final beginning on Friday, March 22nd in Timmins.
With the Thunderbirds on a powerplay 2:06 into the opening period, Jacob Smith backhands a rebound from in front of the Rock goaltender Patrick Boivin’s crease to give the Soo a 1 – 0 lead. Kelsey Ouellet and Declan Gallivan notched the contributors on Smith’s 27th of the season. At seventeen minutes even of the period and Boivin stretched out across the Rock’s crease, Silas Crawford lifts the visitors second powerplay goal over the Timmins’ goaltender’s left shoulder. Samuel Lake and Jackson Truchan drew the helpers on Crawford’s fifth of the season. With Boivin out of his crease, Daniel Beaupre lifts the Soo’s third straight powerplay goal into the back of the Rock’s net to bring the Soo’s lead to 3 – 0 at the 19:32 mark of the first. Truchan and Smith added the assists on Beaupre’s 22nd of the season.
2:41 into the second period and the Soo on a powerplay, Truchan fires a pass across the blueline to Gallivan on the right side of the blueline to find Smith in the right faceoff circle to rifle a wrist shot past Boivin to increase the Thunderbirds’ lead to 4 – 0. Defenseman Quinn Myles skates in from the middle of the blueline to fire a shot along the ice from between the faceoff circles to find the back of Boivin’s net at 4:07 of the period. Lake and James Legler registered the helpers on Myles tenth of the season. At 11:45, Timmins’ forward Mason Svarich scores his 40th of the season after splitting the Thunderbird defense at the top of the faceoff circles to slide the Rock’s first into the back of Soo netminder Kolton Bourret’s net. Lucas Lowe drew the lone contributor on Svarich’s goal. With the Rock on a three on one, Brant Romaniuk finds the back of the Bourret’s net for his 21st of the season unassisted to the left of the Soo’s net to close the gap to three at 12:23 of the second.
With a scrum in front of Rock’s net, Grayson Ebrahim slides the Soo’s fifth powerplay goal past Dryden Riley for the Thunderbirds’s sixth of the game 11:40 into the third to bring the lead to 6 – 2. Myles and Crawford had the assists on Ebrahim’s 27th of the season. With 13:03 of the third, Declan Gallivan sinks his fifth of the season from just inside the blueline to find the back of Timmins’ net to give the Soo a 7 – 2 win. Crawford and Ouellet set up the Thunderbirds’ sixth powerplay marker of the contest. The Rock’s Patrick Boivin and Dryden Riley combined to stop 34 of 41 shots in the Timmins’ 7 – 2 loss while Soo netminder Kolton Bourret turned away 26 of 28 shots in the Thunderbirds 7 – 2 win.
The Thunderbirds will play their second to last regular season game when they head to Kirkland Lake on Saturday, March 16th to face the Gold Miners in a 7:00 p.m puck drop.
