Photos: Helene Rancourt
BLIND RIVER, Ont. – Continuing their winning ways, the Soo Thunderbirds remained unbeaten in October, collecting their eighth consecutive victory by defeating the Blind River Beavers 5-2 Sunday afternoon in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League action at the Blind River Community Centre.
While the Beavers held a big edge in shots on goal in the first period, it was the visiting Thunderbirds who provided the lone tally in the session as Samuel Lake connected at 18:44 by stuffing in a loose puck off a point attempt from Candon O’Neill that Blind River netminder Iain Wintle could not contain.
Moving to the middle stanza, Sault Ste. Marie went up by a pair when Daniel Beaupre came out of the corner and worked a play in front that allowed Thomas Degagne to lift in a back hand for his fifth marker of the campaign.
Down a skater late in the period, the Soo struck shorthanded as Grayson Ebrahim steered in a feed from Alex Remenda, who had scooped up a turnover in the neutral zone.
In the final frame, the T-Birds added some insurance at 5:55 when Lake took a play to the net and saw Beaupre join in and chip a chance over Wintle from close range.
Blind River would eventually dash the shutout bid of Soo’s Kolton Bourret with under eight minutes to play thanks to Jacob Kovacs, who started a rush into the T-Birds zone prior to eventually tucking in a rebound past the pad of the netminder off a Michael Gallagher chance.
The Beavers then added another at 14:41 while up a skater as defenceman Andrey Manov moved in from the point and put a low shot under Bourret.
Regrouping though, the Thunderbirds secured the road result when James Legler supplied a long-range empty netter from his side of centre in the late going to finish off the scoring.
The win moves the T-Birds to 11-3-2-1 this season while Blind River sank to 11-6-0-0.
“Highlight of the Night” – NOJHL YouTube Channel
