Photo Credit: Freeze Frame Photos
Coming off a 3 – 2 loss at home to the Soo Eagles on January 13th, the fourth place (22-10-2-1) Soo Thunderbirds hit the road to face the second place (30-7-1-1) Sudbury Cubs for a Thursday, January 18th west division Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League contest. The Cubs sit fifteen points ahead of the Thunderbirds heading into Thursday’s matchup in Sudbury.
At 12:32 of the first period, Kelsey Ouellet picks up a Cubs turnover just inside the blueline to fire a pass to Grayson Ebrahim to sink the Thunderbirds opening goal through Sudbury goaltender Noah Metivier’s five hole to give the Soo a 1 – 0 lead on Ebrahim’s 19th of the season. Jonathan Sonedecker makes a backhand pass to Jackson Truchan in front of Metiver’s net to slide the visitors second goal under the Cub goaltender to bring the Thunderbirds lead to 2 – 0 on Truchan’s 15th of the season. Samuel Assinewai grabs a loose puck in the Thunderbirds zone to the right of Soo netminder Maverick Fletcher’s net to slide the Cubs first under the Thunderbird netminder at 7:39 of the second. Oliver Smith added the lone helper on Assinewai’s 16th of the season.
At 8:24 of the second, Ben Lacroix fires his 13th of the season from the top of the right faceoff circle over Fletcher’s left shoulder to pull Sudbury even 2 – 2. Josh Kavanagh drew the assist on Lacroix’s tying goal. On a Cub’s powerplay, Sault Ste Marie native Hudson Chitaroni picks up a rebound to the right of the Soo net to lift Sudbury’s go-ahead goal over Fletcher’s blocker with Chris Innes registering the contributor on Chitaroni’s 23rd of the season at 2:52 of the third. Mason Chitaroni rifles a shot from the right faceoff circle to be tipped by Nolan Newton at the 3:17 mark of the period to bring the hosts lead to 4 – 2. Ethan Larmand notched the other assist on Newton’s 20th of the season on a Sudbury powerplay. All alone between the faceoff circles at 6:13, Truchan catches a pass from the right boards from James Legler to close the gap to one but not enough for the Soo in the 4 – 3 loss. Sudbury goaltender Noah Metivier turned away 34 of 37 shots in the win while at the other end of the ice, Thunderbird rookie netminder Maverick Fletcher stopped 23 of 27 shots in the 4 – 3 loss.
The Thunderbirds will return to Sault Ste Marie to host the Cubs at the John Rhodes Centre on Friday, January 19th in a 7:00 p.m west division contest.
