Coming off a 5 – 2 midweek win in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario over the visiting Blind River Beavers on Wednesday, February 24th, the Soo Thunderbirds returned to action at the John Rhodes Centre on Friday, February 26th when they hosted the Beavers in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League contest.
5:59 into the opening period veteran Thunderbird Brock Santa Maria splits the Beavers defense to find Beaver goaltender Gavin Disano right side empty net to give the Soo a 1 – 0 lead. Kaden Dundas drew the lone assist on Santa Maria’s third of the season. At 8:03 of the first, Jacob Kelly skates through the Thunderbird defenseman to sink the tying goal under Soo netminder Scott Young’s right pad to even the game 1 – 1 for Blind River. Mason Chitaroni and Nicholas Jameus notched the contributors on Kelly’s tenth of the season. From the right side of Disano’s net, Noah Boman feeds a pass to Caleb Wood in front of the net at 5:12 of the Soo’s second of the game to give the hosts a 2 – 1 lead. Defenseman Dylan Parson had the other helper on Wood’s fourth of the 2020 – 2021 season. Just over a minute later, Dre Leimeister sunk his first of the season to tie the game 2 – 2 for the Beavers when the Blind River forward picks up his own rebound to find Young’s five hole at 6:47. Ethan Pegg and Caleb Minns added the assists on Leismeister’s goal.
Short handed for Blind River, Justin Mauro scores his third of the season for the Beavers on a two on one with the Sault Ste Marie, Ontario native finding the back of Young’s net past the Thunderbird netminder’s right pad. Samuel Davies drew the second helper on Mauro’s goal at 11:46 of the middle stanza. With a cross ice pass from the right of Young and on a two on one, Beaver Matt Cato finds the back of the net under Young’s catcher for his first of the season at 13:20. Lucas Adams and Chitaroni registered the contributors on Cato’s goal to give the visitors a 4 – 2 lead. On a Thunderbird power play and catching a cross blueline pass from rookie Jacob Doucette, Cameron Dutkiewicz fires a slapshot from the centre of the blueline to find the top right corner of Disano’s net to pull the Soo within with 1:28 remaining in the second. Russell Oldham had the other assist on Dutkiewicz’s third of the season.
At 5:34 of the third, Cooper Smyl finds the back of Disano’s net for an unassisted goal with a wrap around lifted goal to tie the game 4 – 4 for the Thunderbirds. Scoring his second of the contest at 12:05, Santa Maria nets the go-ahead goal for the Soo with Parsons and Boman adding the assists. With 2:52 remaining in Friday’s matchup in Sault Ste Marie, Blind River’s Cato scores his second of the game with a tipped slapshot from Kelly to even the game 5 – 5 at the 17:08 mark. Justin Mauro had the second helper on Cato’s tying power play goal. Cooper Smyl had the lone shootout goal after Beavers Nicholas Jameus, Jacob Kelly, Matt Cato and Thunderbird Noah Boman missed their opportunities in the shootout. Smyl shootout goal gave the Thunderbirds a 6 – 5 shootout win in Sault Ste Marie. Blind River Gavin Disano stopped 37 of 42 shots in loss while the Soo’s Scott Young turned away 30 of 35 shots in the win.
Check out Saultsports.com photographer Bob Davies photo gallery of the Soo Thunderbirds versus Blind River Beavers.
The Beavers will now host the Thunderbirds in Blind River to close out the month of February on the 28th in a 2:00 p.m NOJHL afternoon matinee.
