Photo Credit: Freeze Frame Photos
The Soo Thunderbirds bounced back in a big way on Saturday, February 7th, skating to a 7–3 victory over the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners at the John Rhodes Centre. The fifth-place Thunderbirds (23-14-2) and tenth-place Gold Miners (12-24-5) entered the matchup looking to build momentum after contrasting results the night before, with Kirkland Lake coming off a 5–4 overtime win over the Soo Eagles and the Soo falling 4–3 to the Paper Kings in Espanola.
The Thunderbirds struck first midway through the opening period. At 11:54, Deven Jones-McDonald opened the scoring with his 19th goal of the season, finishing a play set up by Declan Gallivan and goaltender Ryan Hicks to give the Soo a 1–0 lead. The home side doubled the advantage late in the frame on the power play, as Aiden Atkinson buried his 17th of the season at 18:54 off a feed from Gallivan, sending the Thunderbirds into the intermission up 2–0.
Kirkland Lake responded in the second period, clawing their way back into the contest. At 12:17, Fynn Manttari cut the deficit in half with his fifth of the season, assisted by Isaiah Allen and Matthew Neuman. Just over four minutes later, the Gold Miners pulled even when Matthew Neuman scored his fifth of the year unassisted at 16:27, knotting the game at 2–2 heading into the third.
The Thunderbirds quickly regained control in the final period. Just 2:22 in, Gavin Killoran restored the Soo lead with his 17th goal of the season, finishing a setup from Declan Gallivan to make it 3–2. Owen Murphy added some breathing room at 6:48, scoring his fourth of the year with assists from Gianmarco Mastroianni and Landon Hill to extend the lead to 4–2.
The Soo continued to press offensively, and at 13:33 Wyatt Groth made it 5–2 with his ninth of the season, assisted by Brayden Gosselin. Kirkland Lake answered on the power play at 14:33, as Jeremy Schoenborn netted his first of the season with help from Owen van de Ven, cutting the score to 5–3.
Any hopes of a comeback were quickly shut down. At 15:56, Aiden Atkinson sealed the win with his second goal of the night and 18th of the season, scoring unassisted into the empty net. Gavin Killoran capped off the scoring at 18:53, tallying his 18th of the season with assists from Declan Gallivan and Issy Parsa to round out the 7–3 final.
Between the pipes, Ryan Hicks earned the win for the Thunderbirds, stopping 24 of 27 shots. Brian Rathwell took the loss for the Gold Miners, making 27 saves on 33 shots.
Thunderbird coach Bronson Kovacs told Saultsports that “the key tonight was getting back to our game. Coach Chitter set a standard on how we need to play to be successful and we deviated away from that a little bit, but the guys were able to get back to what makes us successful and were able to come away with the two points tonight.”
“As for building on this momentum, when you get into this part of the season, every game and every point is so important so we need to keep building on what makes us successful and bring it into our next games against BR and the Soo,” added Kovacs.
The Thunderbirds will look to keep rolling when they next hit the ice on Friday, February 14th, hosting the Soo Eagles at the John Rhodes Centre in a 7:00 p.m. puck drop.
