Photo Credit: Freeze Frame Photos
With only one point separating the fourth place (3-3-1) Soo Thunderbirds and fifth place (3-2-0-1) Soo Eagles, the Thunderbirds headed across the St Mary’s River with two games in hand to face the Eagles in a Saturday, September 30th west division NOJHL matchup. The Thunderbirds are coming off a 4 – 2 win over the Elliot Lake Vikings in Blind River on Friday, September 29th.
Only 22 seconds into the game, Thunderbird Sam Lake opens the scoring to find the back of the Eagle goaltender Anthony Zolezzi’s net to give the visitors a 1 – 0 lead. Daniel Beaupre added the lone assist on Lake’s first of the 2023 season. From just inside the blueline, Jame Legler sinks his second of the season with an unfortunate awkward bounce off of the back of the boards behind the Eagles’ net to deflect off of Zolezzi’s left skate to give the Thunderbirds a 2 – 0 lead unassisted at 5:11. Lake all alone in front of the Eagles’ net, Lake catches a pass from behind the net from Legler to fire the Thunderbirds third past Zolezzi to bring the lead to 3 – 0. Beaupre registered his second point of the game on Thunderbirds third of the contest at 10:14 of the opening period.
From just inside the Thunderbird blueline, Jack Paweski fires a slapshot on the Thunderbirds’ net to be tipped past the visiting netminder Connor Hatfield by Jack Ohlund to pull the Eagles within two at the 4:59 mark of the second. Tyler Fortson drew the other assist on Ohlund’s powerplay goal. Newly acquired Eagle forward Lucas Caulfield splits the Thunderbirds defense to break in on Thunderbird netminder Hatfield to sink the Eagles’ second of the period on a breakaway at 11:05. Fortson registered his second point of the game with the contributor on Caulfield’s goal. Unassisted, Daniel Beaupre sinks his third of the season from the left faceoff circle with a snapshot under Zolezzi’s catcher to give the Thunderbirds a 4 – 2 lead at 11:47. At 14:54 of the second, Caulfield lifts the Eagles third of the game over Hatfield’s catcher to close the gap to one for the Eagles with Easton Pratt notching the assist on Caulfield’s second of the game. With 58.4 seconds remaining in the game in Sault Ste Marie, Michigan and Anthony Zolezzi’s on the Eagle bench for an extra attacker, Nolan Henry fires the tying goal through traffic from the just inside the right blueline past Hatfield to send the game into overtime. Jack Paweski drew the lone contributor on Hendry’s tying powerplay goal. Paweski skates around the final Thunderbird defenseman with 56 seconds left in the three on three overtime to lift the game winner over Hatfield’s blocker to give the Eagles the 5 – 4 win at the Pullar on Saturday evening.
Both the Thunderbirds and Eagles will play on Tuesday, October 3rd with the Eagles facing the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners at 1:40 p.m while the Thunderbirds meet the Powassan Voodoos at 3:45 p.m in Sudbury during the 2023 NOJHL Showcase.
