MASSEY, Ont. – The Soo Thunderbirds got the game-winning goal and two assists from Grayson Ebrahim to send them on their way to 6-2 victory over the Elliot Lake Vikings in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League play Wednesday at Massey & District Community Arena.
First period action saw both teams trade chances, but the efforts of the starting goaltenders, in Elliot Lake’s Sam Keene and Sault Ste. Marie’s Maverick Fletcher, kept it scoreless into the intermission.
Moving to the middle stanza, the Thunderbirds got on the board at 6:36 when Thomas Degagne whipped in his own rebound attempt off a pass from behind the net by Espen Escasa, who collected his initial NOJHL point, on the play.
The Soo then went up by a pair a couple of shifts later thanks to Lucas DiBerardino, as he steered in a cross-ice feed from Easton Hall.
Cutting into the deficit midway through the match-up, the Vikings’ Nate Dugwell took a nice drop-pass from Noah Aboflan and fired it through Fletcher.
Getting that back at 14:04, Ebrahim put the T-Birds back up by a pair as he clicked on a man advantage opportunity by jamming a backhand through the legs of Keene, moments after a James Legler shot.
The marker for Ebrahim saw him extend a consecutive game point streak to nine in succession.
In the third, Elliot Lake got one back at 7:20 compliments of Liam Bridgeman, who redirected in a Sam Verbonac point shot.
However, the Soo countered moments later, with Leglar tipping in a cross-crease effort from Ebrahim.
Not done there, the Thunderbirds came right back and clicked once more to help put the game away with Jacob Smith finishing off a crisp passing play from Leglar and Ebrahim.
Capping off the result, Daniel Beaupre notched one while shorthanded, off a clever deke, before depositing the puck from in close to round out the scoring.
The victory has the Thunderbirds raising their overall record to 18-8-2-1, while in defeat, the Vikings dropped to 5-19-1-4.
