Photo Credit: Freeze Frame Photos
On Saturday, October 21st, the fourth place (9-3-2-1) west division Soo Thunderbirds hosted the sixth place (2-13) east division French River Rapids at the John Rhodes Centre in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League contest.
1:51 into the opening period, rookie forward Andrew Thompson catches a drop pass in the left faceoff circle from Jacob Smith to fire a snapshot into the bottom right corner of the Rapids’ net to give the Soo a 1 – 0 lead. James Legler notched the other helper on Thompson’s first NOJHL career goal. Jacob Smith registers his second point of the game with his 11th goal of the season picking up his own rebound off of Brady Dyer’s right pad to give the Soo a 2 – 0 lead at 4:46 of the first. Kaden Dundas and Jackson Truchan drew the assists on Smith’s powerplay goal. With 1:21 remaining in the period, Callum McAuley sinks his first of the season with wrapping the Thunderbirds goal around the left post from behind French Rapids net to send the hosts into the first intermission up 3 – 0. Truchan added the lone contributor on McAuley’s goal.
From the right faceoff circle, newly acquired Colton McIntosh rifles a snaphot over Dryer’s right shoulder to find the top right corner of the Rapids’ net to increase the Soo’s lead to 4 – 0. Thomas DeGagne registered the helper on McIntosh’s first of the season at 3:21 of the second period. At 5:43 of the second, Matthew Shulist splits the Thunderbird defense to find the back of the Soo net through rookie goaltender Maverick Fletcher’s five hole to close the gap to four for the Rapids. Tyler Trealout and Brandon Melsness added the assists on Shulist’s eighth of the season. Scoring his first of the season shorthanded, LSSU Laker commit Candon O’Neill catches a cross ice pass from Emile Tremblay to find the back of the Elijah Grant’s net at 8:04 of the second. Degagne adds the other contributor on O’Neill’s first of the 2023 season to give the Soo a 5 – 1 lead.
13 seconds after the midway mark of the second, Kai Clayton lifts French River’s second over the top of a sprawling Maverick Fletcher to close the gap to three. At 5:53 of the third, Jacob Smith picks up a loose puck in front of the Rapids’ crease to backhand his second goal of the game to give the Thunderbirds a 6 – 2 win over French River. Truchan and Legler drew the assists on Smith’s third point of Saturday’s contest. Brady Dryer and Elijah Grant combined to stop 46 of 52 shots in the Rapids loss while Maverick Fletcher earned his second win of the season with turning away 26 of 28 shots in the win for the Soo.
Assistant coach Jamie Henderson filling in for coach Cole Jarrett told Saultsports that “we came out and started really well early on. We fell into some bad habits in the second, but I liked our game for the most part. Maverick was solid all night, I think he’s still finding his form coming back from injury and it’s exciting to see where we feel his game will grow to. Smitty and JT and James have been a real handful for teams. Jacob is playing at both ends and he’s certainly getting rewarded for his fine play.”
The Thunderbirds will now host the Elliot Lake Red Wings on Tuesday, October 24th at the John Rhodes Centre in a 7:00 p.m start.
