Photo  Bob Davies

In a rare Tuesday west division matchup, the first plave (30-5-2-3) Soo Thunderbirds headed across the St Mary’s River to face their cross-border rivals, the second place (24-8-2-1) Soo Eagles at the Pullar Stadium on March 8th. The Thunderbirds headed into Tuesday’s contest sitting 14 points ahead of the Eagles with a total of 65 to be one point ahead of the east division Hearst Lumberjacks with 64 to lead the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League. The NOJHL leaders headed into Tuesday’s contest on a ten-game winning streak dating back to February 9th.

At 10:56 of the opening period, Alfred Rotiroti catches a bounce off the glass behind Eagle goaltender Gabe Rosek’s net to sink his eighth of the season from the right of Rosek’s net to give the Thunderbirds a 1 – 0 lead. Dharan Cap and Kolby Fellinger had the assists on Rotiroti’s goal. With the Eagles on a powerplay 14:22 into the first, Dylan Bachalo catches a pass from Zachary Briskey to find the back of the net of Thunderbird netminder Noah Zeppa after an unsuccessful Thunderbird clearing attempt to even the game 1 – 1 for the Eagles on Bachalo’s second of the season. Thunderbird Sam Lake breaks in on a two and one with Russell Oldham to fire a wrist shot from the left faceoff circle to find the back of Rosek’s net for Lake’s tenth of the season at 8:16 of the second with Zane Burleigh drawing the helpers on visitor’s go-ahead goal. At 17:06 of the period, Michael Chaffay all alone in front of the Rosek’s net to pick up a Cooper Foster rebound to score his 20th of the season and send the Thunderbirds into the second intermission up 3 – 1.

Brian Fiddes and Jacob Swiatek setup Charlie Salem for the Eagles second of the game with Salem catching a backhand pass from Fiddes to pull the hosts within one 3:28 into the final period. At four minutes even from the right faceoff circle, Kenny Belanger Jr increases the Thunderbirds lead to 4 – 2 with his eleventh of the season. Rotiroti registered his second point of the game with the lone contributor on Belanger Jr goal. With 49 seconds remaining the Tuesday matchup and Gabe Rosek on the Eagle bench for an extra attacker, Kelsey Ouellet fires the Thunderbirds fifth goal from the neutral zone to give the visitors a 5 – 2 win and bring the Thunderbirds winning streak to eleven straight wins. Goaltender Gabe Rosek stopped 31 of 36 shots in the Eagles’ fifth 2021 – 2022 loss to the Thunderbirds while Noah Zeppa made 29 saves in the Thunderbirds 31st win of the season.

The Thunderbirds now hit the road for two games against the east division Hearst Lumberjacks on March 11th and in Timmins on March 12th for a matchup with the Timmins Rocks. Both games will be 7:00 p.m puck drops.