Photo Credit: Freeze Frame Photos
In their first game of the 2024 NOJHL Showcase in Sudbury, the third place (4-1) Soo Thunderbirds hit the ice against the second place (5-1) Timmins Rock on Tuesday, October 2nd. In their first meeting of the 2024 – 2024 season on Friday, September 27th, the Thunderbirds defeated the Rock 4 – 1 in Timmins.
With a Rock two on one heading into the Thunderbirds zone, Jaden Lyons sends a cross ice pass to Travis Poan in the right circle to lift Timmins’ first goal over a sprawling Soo netminder Noah Metivier to give the Rock a 1 – 0 lead at 14:12 of the opening period. At 15:39 of the first all alone in the right faceoff on a Rock power play, Kaeden McArthur rifles a snapshot past Metivier underneath the Soo netminder’s blocker to bring Timmins’ lead to 2 – 0. Ryan Armitage and Lucas Lowe adding the helpers on McArthur’s fourth of the season. With Jonathan Sonedecker skating one on one with a Timmins’ defenceman, Sonedecker fires the Soo’s first of the game shorthanded with his fifth of the season along the ice through Rock goaltender Dryden Riley’s five hole to pull the Thunderbirds within one at 3:11 of the second. Harley Wardell drew the lone contributor on Sonedecker’s shorthanded goal. From just inside the Timmins’ blueline and the Soo on a power play, James Legler snapped a shot through traffic to be tipped by Cooper LaBelle to register his third goal of the season at 15:12 of the third to even the game 2 – 2 for the Thunderbirds. With a scrum in front of the Thunderbirds crease, Alexis Tremblay picks up a rebound off of Noah Metivier to slide the go-ahead goal under the Soo veteran netminder to give the Rock a 3 – 2 lead at 17:40. Henry McLellan and Thomas Beard notched the assists on Tremblay’s third of the season. With sixty seconds remaining in regulation and the Soo serving a penalty while Metivier on the bench for an extra attacker, Timmins’ Kaeden McArthur sinks his second of the contest and fifth on the season from between the faceoff circles into a Thunderbird open net to give the Rock a 4 – 2 over the Soo. Rock goaltender Dryden Riley stopped 14 of 16 shots in the Timmins win while Thunderbird netminder Noah Metivier turned away 36 of 39 shots in the Soo’s second loss of the 2024 – 2024 season.
Next action for the Thunderbirds will be a 1:00 p.m matchup in Sudbury at the 2024 NOJHL Showcase when they face the Hearst Lumberjacks. The Soo fell to the Lumberjacks 7 – 4 in Hearst on September 29th.
