Photo Credit: Freeze Frame Photos
Coming off a 5 – 2 loss at the Pullar Stadium on Friday, October 25th to their cross border rivals, the Soo Eagles, the sixth place (7-6-1) Soo Thunderbirds hit the road to take on the eighth place Paper Kings in Espanola for an afternoon matinee on Sunday, October 27th.
At 3:25 of the opening period, Espanola’s Grant Booth breaks across the Thunderbird blueline to skate around Soo defenceman Bryan Fenlon to skate all alone to fire a shot from between the faceoff circles to find the back of Thunderbird netminder Lincoln Mellentin’s net under the right pad to give the Paper Kings a 1 – 0 lead. Jame Meredith had the lone assist on Booth’s fifth of the season. 98 seconds into the middle stanza with Lincoln Mellenthin sprawled out of the ice to the right of the Soo net, Graydon Guthrie scored his eleventh into a wide open Thunderbird net to give Espanola a 2 – 0 lead. Cameron Menard and Kaden Wicklander drew the contributors on Guthrie’s power play marker. Skating across the front of the Thunderbird net between the faceoff circles, Paper King Cameron Menard slid his 13th of the season through Mellethin’s five hole to bring the lead to 3 – 0 for Espanola at 4:07 of the season. Jason Galante added the lone helper on Menard’s goal. With 1:12 left in the second and on a power play, Bryan Fenlon rifles a shot from just inside the middle of the Paper King blueline, James Legler picks up a rebound off of Jame Meredith to give the Soo their first of the game on the Soo’s fourth power play opportunity of the contest. Camden Cowan notched the other assist on Legler’s second of the season.
Jason Galante picks up a rebound off of Mellenthin to poke the Paper Kings fourth past the Thunderbird netminder at 2:49 of the third to give Espanola a 4 – 1 lead. Cameron Menard registered his third point of the game on Galante’s second of the season. From the top of the right faceoff circle, Tyler Neveau fires a shot towards the Paper Kings net to be tipped by James Legler at 13:27 of the period past James Meredith to close the gap to two for the Soo. In front of the Soo’s net, Graydon Guthrie tipped a pass from Menard from the right corner past Mellenthin at 15:17 to give Espanola a 5 – 2 lead on a Paper King power play. Thunderbird Aiden Atkinson slides the final goal of the game with 0.9 seconds remaining the afternoon matinee for his sixth of the season. Cooper Woron and Legler drew the helpers on Atkinson’s goal. Espanola goaltender James Meredith stopped 31 of 34 shots in the Paper Kings 5 – 3 win while Soo netminder Lincoln Mellenthin turned away 31 of 36 shots in the Soo’s third straight loss.
The Soo’s next opponent will be the Iroquois Falls Storm on Friday, November 1st at the John Rhodes in a 7:00 p.m puck drop while the Paper Kings now face the Cubs on Thursday, October 31st in Sudbury with a 7:05 start.
