SAULT STE. MARIE, Ont. – Two goals apiece from Gavin Killoran and Aiden Atkinson helped propel the Soo Thunderbirds past the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners 7-3 Saturday evening in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League get together at John Rhodes Community Centre.
Continuing his stellar play this season, the Thunderbirds’ Deven Jones-McDonald ran a point streak to eight when he scored 11:54 into the contest as he took a puck put around the boards by netminder Ryan Hicks and darted down the left wing before driving around a defender, going in, and lifting his team-leading 19th tally over Gold Miners’ goalkeeper Glen McInnes.
Up a skater late in the first period, Atkinson made it 2-0 as he wheeled through the middle and was sent in alone by Jones-McDonald and neatly lifted his chance high into the top left corner.
Action in the second stanza, saw Kirkland Lake battle back to knot the affair.
Fynn Manttari put them on the board at 12:17 when he lifted a shot through traffic from up top that eluded Sault Ste. Marie’s Ryan Hicks.
The Gold Miners then tied it just over four minutes later as Ben Lyons pressured a turnover the neutral zone that generated a two-on-one that allowed Lex Lamontagne to fire a pass over to Matthew Neuman, who ripped a shot past the glove of Hicks.
Still even into the third, the Thunderbirds went back on top at 2:22 thanks to a solid individual effort by Killoran who skated through defenders before splitting the Kirkland Lake defence and getting just enough of his chance to squeak it through McInnes.
Going back up by two, Owen Murphy picked up a loose puck off a Landon Hill rush and buried it to give him points in a eight in a row.
After the T-Birds’ Wyatt Groth made it 5-2 by working his way into the slot and sending a crisp wrister into the left corner of the net, Owen Kelly countered for the visitors a minute later on the power play as he unleashed a rocket after being teed up by Vaive Hickey.
The Soo then iced the victory with an empty netter from Atkinson, and Killoran at even strength, to wrap up the scoring.
With the win, the Thunderbirds move to 24-14-2-2 on the year while the Gold Miners drop to 12-25-0-5.
