After opening the weekend with a 3–0 shutout of the Soo Eagles on Friday night, the fifth-place Soo Thunderbirds (25-14-2) were back on home ice Saturday, February 14th, hosting the eighth-place Blind River Beavers (14-25-4) at the John Rhodes Centre. With the regular-season series tied at three wins apiece—and Blind River claiming a 3–1 victory in the most recent meeting on January 11th—the matchup delivered another tightly contested battle.
Sault Ste. Marie struck first late in the opening period. At 16:44, Adam Pszeniczny opened the scoring on the power play, notching his 15th goal of the season with assists from Rhys Bonvie and Jaden van de Ven. The Beavers answered back on their own man advantage at 9:17, as Ilian Danilov buried his 10th of the year, assisted by Ryder Hill and Camden Cowan, to send the teams to the intermission tied 1–1.
The Thunderbirds regained the lead early in the second period. At 5:14, Deven Jones-McDonald snapped home his 20th goal of the season—moving him into the team lead in goals—off feeds from Declan Gallivan and Issy Parsa to make it 2–1 heading into the third.
Blind River came out strong in the final frame. Danilov struck again on the power play at 2:21, scoring his 11th of the season and second of the game with assists from Ryder Hill and Mattis Lafond to tie it up. Just over four minutes later, the Beavers grabbed their first lead of the night when Geoffrey Boates capitalized on a turnover at the Thunderbirds’ blue line, scoring unassisted for his fourth of the campaign to put Blind River ahead 3–2.
Refusing to go quietly, the Thunderbirds mounted a late push. At 14:01, Landon Hill tied the game at 3–3 with his 13th of the season, set up by Jaxon Turnbull and Issy Parsa. The comeback was completed in dramatic fashion at 19:05, as Pszeniczny found the puck in a scramble at the top of the Beavers’ crease and buried his second of the night—16th of the season—off an assist from Gavin Killoran, lifting Sault Ste. Marie to a 4–3 victory.
When Saultsports talked to coach Adrian O’Dell about making adjustments in the win, O’Dell said that “we didn’t make any adjustments to be honest, blind river was playing very hard as it was an important game for them and us it felt like a playoff game. We understood that blind rivers determination to win was what we needed to match and we believe we did that and came out with a big win!”
“The win was a big win. But we will continue to keep working as we’re heading down the final stretch of the season and not look back,” said O’Dell.
The Thunderbirds will look to keep the momentum rolling when they host the visiting Powassan Voodoos on Saturday, February 21st, with puck drop set for 7:00 p.m. at the John Rhodes Centre. Meanwhile, the Beavers head to Sudbury for a Family Day afternoon matinee against the Greater Sudbury Cubs, scheduled for a 2:05 p.m. start.
