Coming off a 5 – 2 win in Elliot Lake over the Red Wings on Friday, January 20th, the second place (26-10-2-1) Soo Thunderbirds returned to Sault Ste Marie, Ontario to host their cross border rivals, the fifth place (17-16-3-1) Soo Eagles in a west division matchup on Saturday, January 21st.

At 2:04 of the first, Alex Remenda fires a wrist shot from the right faceoff circle to find the back of Eagle goaltender Logan Raffaele’s net over his let shoulder to give the Thunderbirds a 1 – 0 lead. Michael Chaffay and Daniel Beaupre drew the assists on Remenda’s second of the season. Scoring his third goal in 24 hours, Thunderbird forward Jackson Truchan catches a cross ice pass from Dharan Cap to give the Thunderbirds a 2 – 0 lead at the 4:23 mark of the opening period. Austin Fellinger notched the other contributor on Truchan’s 20th of the season. From the right faceoff circle, Eagle forward Chase Tallaire finds the back of Thunderbird netminder Kolton Bourret’s net to pull the visitors within one 57 seconds before the midway mark of the middle stanza. Caleb Cordas had the lone assist on Tallaire’s 13th goal of the season. Brock Santa Maria drops a backhand pass to Ranon Joseph at the centre of the Eagle blueline to fire the Thunderbirds third of the game and Joseph’s third of the season to give the hosts a 3 – 1 lead at 16:25 of the second. Sault Ste Marie native Kenny Belanger Jr scores his 19th of the season to close the gap to one bu not enough for a win at 6:43 of the third. Isaiah Gagerman and Jack Morston drew the helpers on Belanger Jr’s powerplay goal. Eagle goaltender Logan Raffaele stopped 34 of 37 shots in the visitor’s 17th loss of the season while Thunderbird netminder Kolton Bourret turned away 19 of 21 shots in the hosts 3 – 2 win over the Eagles.

Next action for the Thunderbirds will be on Friday, January 27th when they play host to the Elliot Lake Red Wings at the John Rhodes Centre in a 7:00 p.m puck drop.