Photo Credit: Freeze Frame Photos

The Soo Thunderbirds who finished third overall in the west division for the 2023 – 2024 NOJHL season hit the road for game one and two of a west division semi best of seven series against the Sudbury Cubs who finished the regular season in second place with game one hitting the ice on Thursday, March 21st.

At 7:28 of the opening period, Nolan Newton splits the Soo defense to fire a wrist shot from between the faceoff circles to find the back of Thunderbird netminder Kolton Bourret to give the Cubs a 1 – 0 lead. Josh Kavanagh drew the lone helper on Newton’s first goal of the playoffs. Nolan Newton skates coast to coast to skate around the final Thunderbird defenseman to break in on Kolton Bourret all alone to lift Sudbury’s second goal of the contest at 6:18 of the second to find the back of the Soo’s net just below the crossbar to give the Cubs a 2 – o lead. Kavanaugh notched his second assist on Nolan’s second goal of the game. Scoring his first NOJHL career goal, Declan Gallivan sank the lone Thunderbird goal at 16:38 of the second with Kaden Dundas and Jackson Truchan added the contributors on Gallivan’s powerplay goal. Cub goaltender Noah Metivier stopped 21 of 22 shots in the 2 – 1 game one win while Thunderbird netminder Kolton Bourret turned away 19 of 21 shots in the loss.

Thunderbird coach Cole Jarrett told Saultsports that “I thought it was a hard fought game. I felt we could have had a better start but we found our game in the second. On to the next one.”

Game two will take place in Sudbury on Friday, March 22nd with the Cubs leading the series 1 – 0 with a 1 – 0 series lead. Listen to game two LIVE on Truhous Sports Radio.