Thunderbirds fall 5-3 to Voodoos

By Matt Stefano

After dropping a 4-3 overtime decision in their home opening game on Friday night against the Blind River Beavers, the Soo Thunderbirds played their second home game of the season on Saturday night as they took on the defending NOJHL champion Powassan Voodoos.

Saturday night’s contest also saw a pair of first year head coaches in action, including John Parco (Thunderbirds) and Beau Moyer (Powassan).

It was a similar situation to Friday night’s game for the Thunderbirds, as they trailed 3-1 heading into the third, battled back to tie the game up at three, but still ended up falling short.

The Thunderbirds dropped a 5-3 decision to the Powassan Voodoos on Saturday night at the John Rhodes.

“We had a short bench,” said Thunderbirds forward Nicolas Case. “The biggest thing was just to play our system, get pucks deep, and play our neutral zone trap. It came down to legs, but overall I thought we battled hard for what we had and hopefully it’ll be a better game tomorrow.”

Case, who had three assists in his last three games, got his first goal in a Thunderbird uniform and set up another in Saturday night’s loss to Powassan.

“It felt pretty good to get that monkey off my shoulder,” said the Kingston, Ontario native. “To get my first goal as a Thunderbird on home ice felt good.”

All three Thunderbird goals came on the power play from three different players, including Nicolas Case, Alex Acosta, and Nick Smith.

Acosta also added an assist for his second two point game of the season.

Raf Praysner, Ryan Lawrence, Kaidan McDonald, and Camaryn Baber all had an assist each for the Thunderbirds.

Voodoos forward Tyler Gilberds was named first star of the game, recording a goal and an assist while defenceman Dayton Murray had a multi point night of his own, setting up a pair of goals.

Rhys Brown (power play), Brett Hahkala (power play), Kobe Desmond, and Shane Beaulieu had the other goals for Powassan.

Cameron Moore, Eric Nagy, Cade Herd, and Tyson Gilmour all recorded an assist each.

Christian Cicigoi made 32 saves for the Voodoos victory while Thunderbirds goaltender Eric Schuch gave up 5 goals on 30 shots in the loss.

Thunderbirds will wrap up a busy three game weekend on Sunday afternoon as they will travel to Espanola to take on the Express at 2:00 p.m. from the Espanola Regional Recreation Complex.

(Photo credit to James Egan’s Sports Photography)

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