The third place (13-5-1-1) Soo Thunderbirds opened their three-game northern road swing on Friday, November 14th, traveling to the McIntyre Arena to face the sixth place (11-5-0-1) Timmins Rock. In a tough matchup against one of the NOJHL’s hottest teams, the Thunderbirds were unable to slow Timmins’ offensive surge, falling 9–2 in the weekend opener.

The Rock wasted little time getting on the board when Ben Climenhaga scored his first of the season just 2:04 into the game, assisted by Kimani Eccleston and Diego Da Silva. The Thunderbirds responded at 6:18 as Owen Murphy buried his second of the season off feeds from Vincent Bondy and Callum McAuley. But Timmins regained control midway through the period with Kaeden McArthur scoring shorthanded at 12:32, followed by another from McArthur at 17:26, giving the Rock a 3–1 lead after one.

Timmins continued to press in the second. Ryan Power made it 4–1 at 4:06, and the Rock added two more late in the frame—Eccleston at 16:25 and again at 19:46—to stretch the lead to 6–1 through 40 minutes.

The third period saw the Rock maintain their momentum. McArthur completed a hat trick at 8:14 on the powerplay, followed quickly by a goal from Maxfeld Shin at 8:51. William Lobanov added his first of the season at 18:10 to make it 9–1. The Thunderbirds capitalized late when Gavin Killoran scored his fourth of the season at 18:39, assisted by Vincent Bondy, closing out the night’s scoring.

Thunderbirds goaltender Ryan Hicks faced a heavy workload, stopping 31 of 40 shots, while Frédéric Cousineau turned aside 24 of 26 shots for Timmins.

The Soo Thunderbirds will look to regroup quickly as they continue their three-game road trip on Saturday, November 15th, with a visit to Iroquois Falls to take on the Storm at the Jus Jordan Arena. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.