Photo Credit: Freeze Frame Photos
After defeating the Blind River Beavers in a west division semi final best of seven series 4 – 1, the Soo Thunderbirds headed to Sudbury, Ontario to face the Sudbury Cubs on Thursday, April 6th to open the best of seven west division final series. The Cubs are coming off of a 4 – 1 west semi final division series over the Espanola Paper Kings.
With a cross ice pass from Daniel Beaupre, Wyatt Marlow rifles the opening goal with a snapshot from the top of the right faceoff circle past Cub goaltender Noah Metivier to give the Thunderbirds a 1 – 0 lead. Defenseman Austin Fellinger added the other assist on Marlow’s second of the postseason 6:40 into the first. With 45 seconds remaining the period and the Soo on a powerplay, Jackson Truchan sinks his fifth of the 2023 playoffs to send the Thunderbirds into the first intermission up 2 – 0. Justin Mauro and Dharan Cap notched the helpers on Truchan’s powerplay goal. With a scramble in Soo’s crease and the Cubs on a powerplay, Samuel Assinewai slides Sudbury’s first goal of the game through Thunderbird netminder Landon Miller’s five hole to oull the Cub’s within at 9:03 of the second. Oliver Smith and Christopher Innes drew the contributors on Assinewai’s second of the postseason.
At 19:27 of the second and Truchan all alone to the right of Sudbury’s net, the Thunderbird forward scores his second of the game with lifting the Thunderbirds’ third of the game past Metivier to bring the Soo’s lead to 3 – 1. Brodie McConnell-Barker and Marlow added the assists on Truchan’s sixth of the playoffs. Wyatt Marlow splits the Cubs defense to slide the Thunderbirds fourth goal of the game under a sprawling Metivier to score his second of the game 1:55 into the final period to bring the Soo’s lead to 4 – 1. Anton Petrovskiy and Beaupre set up Marlow’s third of the playoffs.
With Sudbury on a two on one, Oliver Smith fires a wrist shot under Miller’s blocker from the right faceoff circle to close the gap to two at 7:43. Billy Biedermann and Pierson Sobush added the helpers on Smith’s fourth of the postseason. With Metivier on the Cub’s bench for an extra attacker, Dharan Cap sinks his sixth of the playoffs into an empty Sudbury net to give the Thunderbirds a 5 – 2 win and a 1 – 0 lead in the west division final series. Marlow and Alex Remenda notched the assists on Cap’s empty net goal. Sudbury goaltender Noah Metivier stopped 37 of 41 shots in the Cubs’ loss while Thunderbird netminder Landon Miller turned away 20 of 22 shots in the Soo’s game one win.
Thunderbird coach Cole Jarrett told Saultsports that “Obviously we knew it was important to get off to a good start, in both the game and the series. We took the next shift mentality all week and made sure we were all ready for our first shift and it led to a strong start.”
“I thought we executed our game plan really well. Played with a ton of pace, led by everyone buying into moving the puck quickly and looking to make plays,” added Jarrett.
Game two of the best of seven series will take to the ice in Sudbury on Friday, April 7th in a 7:05 p.m puck drop.
