Coming off a 6 – 5 shootout win in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario on Friday, February 26th over the visiting Blind River Beavers, the Soo Thunderbirds hit highway 17 to take on the Beavers in an afternoon matinee on Sunday, February 28th to close out the month in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League contest.
At 6:28 of the first, Beaver Justin Mauro picks up a rebound to find the back of a sprawling Thunderbird netminder Alex Bugeja to open the scoring for Blind River. Thomas Michuad and Lucas Adams drew the helpers on Mauro’s fourth of the season. With a cross crease pass from Brock Santa Maria, veteran forward Cooper Smyl sinks the tying goal over Beaver goaltender Wyatt Courchaine’s left shoulder to even the game 1 – 1 at 12:04. Dylan Parsons notched the other contributor on Smyl’s seventh of the season. Picking up a loose puck in front of Courchaine at fourteen minutes even, Parker Morgan finds the back of the Beavers net for the Thunderbird go-ahead goal. Ty Zachary and Tyson Doucette had the assists on Morgan’s second of the season. After Beaver defenseman Samuel Davies covers the puck in Courchaine’s crease, Cooper fires his second of the game at 17:58 of the period on a Soo penalty shot to bring the lead to 3 – 1.
With a scramble in front of the Beavers net, defenseman Cameron Dutkiewicz picks a rebound to increase the lead to 4 – 1 for the visitors with 1:49 remaining in the season. Blueline Conor Toms had the lone assist on Dutkiewicz’s fourth of the season. Firing a wrsit shot from the top of the left faceoff circle rookie defenseman Conor Toms nets his third of the season through Courchaine’s five hole 4:37 into the second. Russell Oldham had the helper on Toms’ goal. Black McNally and Nicholas Jameus drew the contributors on Blind River’s only other goal of the game when Matt Cato picks up a rebound of of Alex Bugeja’s cross bar to bring the score to 5 – 2 at 16:29 of the middle stanza. From the faceoff circle, rookie forward Ty Zachary picks up a loose puck to slide the Soo’s goal past Courchaine to give the Thunderbirds a 6 – 2 lead at 8:06 of the third. Oldham and Ethan Novello had the assists on Zachary’s third of the season. Registering his first ever junior hat trick, Smyl scores the seventh of the game after a Thunderbird three on one at 12:13 from the top of the left faceoff circle to give the Soo a 7 – 2 win. Beaver goaltender Wyatt Courchaine turned away 36 of 43 shots while Alex Bujega earned his fifth win of the 2020 – 2021 season with stopping 23 of 25 shots in the win.
After the 7 – 2 loss to the Thunderbirds on home ice in Blind River, Beaver coach Kyle Brick told Saultsports.com that “if we’re going to be successful on Tuesday I need to somehow find players who want to be here”.
The Thunderbirds will now host the Beavers at the John Rhodes Centre in Sault Ste Marie on March 2nd in a 7:00 p.m NOJHL puck drop.
