By Matt Stefano
After dropping a 4-3 decision to the Soo Eagles on Friday night at the John Rhodes Community Centre, the Soo Thunderbirds made the trip across the International Bridge on Saturday night as they made a visit to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan to take on the Soo Eagles in the second game of a home and home series.
The Thunderbirds, who had their eight game winning streak snapped on Friday night at the John Rhodes, rebounded with a 4-2 victory over the Soo Eagles on Saturday night at the Pullar Stadium.
Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario native Raf Praysner opened the scoring for the Eagles with a shorthanded tally at the 17:35 mark of the first, putting the his club up 1-0 after one.
Riley Jensen and Brendan Blair had the assists on what would also be Praysner’s thirteenth tally of the season.
The Thunderbirds tied the game up at one just 1:39 into the second, courtesy of Lucas Theriault’s thirty second goal of the season from Noah Boman.
Theriault would then put the Thunderbirds up 2-1 at the 2:43 mark of the second, scoring his second goal of the game on the power play from Steven Bellini and Noah Boman.
Theriault’s second goal of the game, also gave him thirty three goals on the season.
But Theriault wasn’t done there though!
At the 7:03 mark of the second, Theriault would then score his third goal of the game, giving him his second career natural hat trick, which put the Thunderbirds up 3-1
Theriault’s third goal of the game, also gave him his thirty fourth goal of the season.
The Thunderbirds would then get their fourth goal of the second period at 14:37, courtesy of Nick Smith’s twenty sixth goal of the season from Kaidan McDonald and Tristan Cicchello.
Smith’s twenty sixth goal of the season, also gave him his seventy second career goal, tying Matt Caruso (2014-2017) for fifth on the Soo Thunderbirds all-time goals list.
The Thunderbirds took a three-goal lead heading into the final twenty minutes of the game.
The Eagles would get the only goal in the third period at the 3:45 mark, courtesy of Dominic Skrelja’s thirteenth goal of the season on the power play from Brett Morich and Hayden Clark.
A four goal second period would be enough for the Thunderbirds on Saturday night though, as they would go on to their 35th win victory of the season.
Eagles netminder Shane Brancato gave up four goals on thirty three shots in the loss while Thunderbirds goaltender William Anderson made thirty four stops for the victory.
The Thunderbirds will now travel to Blind River on Monday to take on the Beavers.
Game time is 7:00 p.m. at the Blind River Community Centre.
