With the Soo Thunderbirds leading the 2021 COVID Cup eight points to six and a half points over the Blind River Beavers, the Thunderbirds hosted the Beavers in a Thursday, March 25th Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League game five contest in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario at the John Rhodes Centre.

38 seconds before the halfway mark of the opening period, Norman Boman picks up a loose puck in Beaver goaltender Wyatt Courchaine’s crease to sink his sixth of the season at the 10:38 mark. Caleb Wood and Cooper Smyl drew the helpers on Thunderbirds first of the game. On a power play at 3:29 of the first, Matt Cato catches a cross crease pass from Justin Mauro to lift it over Soo netminder Alex Bugeja’s catcher to even the game 1 – 1 for Blind River. Spencer Kennedy added the other contributor on Cato’s sixth of the 2021 season. Warner Young finds the back of Corchaine’s net 1:36 into the second for the Thunderbirds go-ahead goal. Brick Santa Maria and Dylan Parson notched the assists on Young’s third of the season. Michael Chaffay sends a pass to the front of the Beavers net to Santa Maria to find Courchaine’s five hole to bring the lead to 3 – 1. Andrew Malek had the second helper on Santa Maria’s sixth of the season.

Scoring his of the game at 11:33 of the middle stanza, Young catches a cross ice pass from Smyl to tip the Thunderbirds fourth past Blind River goaltender Wyatt Courchaine to increase the lead to 4 – 1. 58 seconds past the halfway mark of the second, Chaffay picks up his own rebound for his sixth of the season with a goal behind Beaver goaltender Gavin Disano at the 9:02 mark of the second to give the Soo a 5 – 1 lead. Santa Maria registered his third point of the game. At 3:57 of the third, Russell Oldham scores his first of the season after picking up a Noah Boman rebound to lift the Soo’s sixth goal over Disano’s catcher to bring the lead to 6 – 1 for the Thunderbirds. At 14:18 of the period, Parker Morgan fires his fifth of the season with Tyson Doucette and Young drawing the assists on the Thunderbirds seventh of the game.

With the Beaver net empty for over three minutes and Disano on the Blind River bench for an extra attacker, Warner Young registers a hat trick with a Soo goal from the Soo end to give the hosts an 8 – 1 win. Netminder Alex Bugeja had the lone contributor on Young’s third of the contest with 45 seconds remaining in game five of the 2021 COVID Cup. Blind River’s Wyatt Courchaine and Gavin Disano combined with turning away a total of 40 of 47 while Alex Bugeja stopped 34 of 35 shots in the Thunderbirds third win of the 2021 COVID Cup.

When Saultsports asked Beaver coach Kyle Brick about the loss in Sault Ste Marie on Thursday, Brick said that “we weren’t prepared and that’s on me. I need to be better.”

Saultsports mentioned about winning on home ice and losing in Sault Ste Marie, Brick added “with only fifty fans in the building there really isn’t home ice in this series.”

Warner Young told Saultsports that “Everyone on the team stepped up night. Denny challenged us this week in practice and we needed that, and it shows by tonight’s effort. It felt great to help contribute to the win tonight for our team, and we are going to keep this momentum going into our last two games of the season to go out on a high note.”

Visit Saultsports.com photographer Bob Davies photo gallery of game five of the 2021 COVID Cup.

Game six of the series will now head to Blind River for a Saturday, March 27th matchup with a puck drop of 7:00 p.m.