By Matt Stefano
The Soo Thunderbirds were just one win away from clinching the Provenzano Cup on Wednesday evening as it marked their sixth meeting of the year against the Blind River Beavers. With the Soo winning five times in the first five meetings, tonight marked a one sided matchup as they defeated Blind River by a score of 8-2.
“It’s going pretty good,” said T-Birds forward Matt Pinder, who had two goals on Wednesday. “Our coach has been making sure we are running our system and everyone is buying in, so we just tried to do the little things out there to get us through tonight.”
T-Birds captain Brett Jeffries led the way offensively with three assists while Matt Busby, Matt Mitchell, Drake Pilon and Zach Senecal all had a goal and an assist each. Darian Pilon and Mark Tassone each chipped in with a pair of helpers while single assists went to Izaak Del Mastro and Mike Caruso. Ryan Mulligan and Matt Caruso also got on the scoreboard with a goal each.
Ted Davis and Alex Daija had the goals for the Beavers while assists went to Bryce Campbell and Liam Sweeney.
Nathan Warren made 9 saves for the T-Birds victory.
Beavers goalie Matt Blatenberger gave up 5 goals on 48 shots through two periods before being replaced by Martin Miloslavich, who gave up 3 goals on 10 shots the rest of the way.
Next action for the T-Birds is Sunday, November 29th at 7:30 p.m. vs the Soo Eagles at the Essar Centre.
NOTE: T-Birds both white and black RBC cup game worn jerseys will continue to be on sale on Sunday night’s game for $50.00 and T-Birds pink jerseys will also available for purchase.