By Matt Stefano
After dropping a 4-2 decision to the Blind River Beavers back on Friday night in the Soo and starting the season 0-1 for the first time since 2017-2018, the Soo Thunderbirds were right back in action just twenty four hours later on Saturday night as they were in Blind River for a rematch against the Beavers.
The Thunderbirds dropped their second straight game and went 0-2 to start the season for the first time in franchise history as they fell by a score of 6-3 to the Blind River Beavers at the Blind River Community Centre on Saturday night.
The Beavers got on the board first at the 5:55 mark of the opening period, courtesy of Joel Martin’s first goal of the season on the power play from Noah Minns and Sam Davies.
A shorthanded goal by newly acquired forward Jacob Kelly at the 8:19 mark of the first period gave the Beavers a 2-0 lead.
Then, just 19 seconds after Kelly’s shorthanded tally, it would be Thunderbirds second-year forward Will Josephson getting his first goal of the season on the power play from Warner Young and Dylan Parsons, cutting the Beavers lead to 2-1 after twenty minutes of play.
Josephson’s goal on the man advantage also turned out to be his first career power play goal.
At the 5:21 mark of the second period, it would Thunderbirds rookie forward Ethan Novello getting his first career NOJHL goal from Russell Oldham and Kurtis Rogers, which tied the game up at two.
The Beavers would then take a 3-2 lead at the 12:14 mark of the second period, courtesy of Jacob Kelly’s second goal of the game on the power play from Lucas Adams and Devin Mauro.
Then, with just 2:16 left to go in the middle frame, the Beavers would then get their second shorthanded goal of the game as Jared Dupuis notched his second goal of the season from Devin Mauro and Noah Minns, which gave the home side a 4-2 lead after two periods of play.
Jared Dupuis and Jacob Kelly, who both had shorthanded tallies on Saturday night, became the first two Beaver players to score a shorthanded goal each in the same game since Mark Bastianello and Jordan Kreller both did back on October 16, 2016.
The Beavers would go up by a score of 5-2 just 3:10 into the third period, courtesy of Andrew Malek’s first goal of the season from Caleb Minns.
The Thunderbirds would then get a power play tally with just 4:00 left to go in the third, courtesy of Cooper Smyl’s first goal of the season from Tyson Doucette, cutting the Beavers lead to 5-3.
An empty net goal by Beavers forward Caleb Minns at 19:21 would then make the score 6-3 in favour of Blind River.
Beavers rookie netminder Gavin Disano, who got his first NOJHL start between the pipes on Saturday night against the Soo, made 38 saves for his first NOJHL victory.
Thunderbirds goaltender Scott Young made 29 saves in the loss.
After being outshot 41-38 against the Beavers back on Friday night in the Soo, the Thundebirds then ended up outshooting the Beavers 41-35 on Saturday night in Blind River.
The Soo will now be back on John Rhodes ice on Saturday, November 28th at 7:00 p.m. against the very same Blind River Beavers.
(Photo by Bob Davies)
