NORTHERN ONTARIO JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE
NOJHL MEDIA UPDATE
Release Date: Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2014
Thunderbirds top Nickel Barons 4-1
SUDBURY – The Soo Thunderbirds got a goal and an assist from Joey Ogden to help lead them to a 4-1 triumph over the Sudbury Nickel Barons Wednesday evening in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League play at McClelland Arena.
The game was scoreless through nearly the first 17 minutes of the contest before Sault Ste. Marie’s Anthony Miller put the visitors on the board with his ninth of the campaign at 16:55.
They then added to their lead with 40 seconds remaining in the stanza courtesy of an Ogden effort, which turned out to be the game-winner.
Nathan Hebert assisted on both tallies in the first frame.
It stayed 2-0 T-Birds until early in the third when Dylan Callaghan struck for Sudbury to cut the Soo lead in half.
Special teams allowed the Thunderbirds to restore their two-tally cushion as Matt Busby found the mark via the power play at 8:31.
Boris Katchouk then iced it in the final seconds with an unassisted goal into an empty net to round out the scoring.
Mario Culina turned in another solid effort in net for Sault Ste. Marie making 40 saves on the night to record the win.
Jessie Morin stopped 29 of 32 in defeat.
With the win the Thunderbirds improve to 17-2-0-2 on the season and move back into sole possession of top spot in the NOJHL standings, one point ahead of second place Kirkland Lake.
In defeat the Nickel Barons slipped to 13-5-1-2.
League play resumes Friday with Blind River visiting Powassan, Cochrane at home to Abitibi and Sault Ste. Marie visiting Elliot Lake in a trio of 7:30 p.m. starts.
