By Matt Stefano
On Sunday afternoon, the Soo Thunderbirds headed to Blind River for their second road game of the season to take on the Beavers in game two of the Provenzano Cup series.
The Beavers made it 1-0 at 10:01 of the first courtesy of Austin Hickner’s first of the season from Daniel Sarnecki. Joey Miller’s second goal of the season tied things up for the T-Birds at 12:50 from Joe Newhouse and Matt Pinder. Brendan Mackenzie’s second goal of the season at 15:03 from Liam Sweeney and Bryce Campbell put Blind River up 2-1 after one.
Overage forward Matt Pinder extended his goal scoring streak to five games with his fifth of the season from Brandon Grandinetti and Mark Tassone just 2:18 into the second.
With the teams tied at two through forty minutes of action, the T-Birds took the lead just 2:00 into the third as Darian Pilon notched his second of the season on the power play from Matt Caruso and Matt Pinder. Beavers forward Joseph Eben tied things at three with just ten seconds remaining in regulation from Nathan Hans and Cole Murray.
Just fourteen ticks into overtime, Matt Pinder’s second of the afternoon and sixth of the season from Matt Caruso and Ryan Mulligan proved to be the winner as the T-Birds slipped past the Beavers 4-3 in overtime and improved their record to 5-0.
Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan native Brandon Gordon made 26 saves to pick up his second win in net for the T-Birds.
Beavers goalie Martin Miloslavich gave up four goals on forty six shots.
The T-Birds will look to improve their record to 6-0 for the first time since the 2001-2002 season as they will travel to Cochrane on Friday, September 25th at 7:30 p.m. to take on the Crunch. It will also mark the first meeting between these two clubs since April 19th, 2015, when the Soo defeated them 5-3 in game 5 of the NOJHL finals to go on to their third Copeland Cup McNamara Trophy in team history.
