Thunderbirds 'terrible' in loss to Blind River

The Soo Thunderbirds weren’t prepared on Friday night and the Blind River Beavers made them pay.

The Beavers handed the Thunderbirds a 5-4 overtime loss Friday night at the John Rhodes Community Centre in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League action.

“We played terrible tonight,” said Thunderbirds coach Warren LaVoy. “All of the little things we’ve been talking about earlier, we didn’t do any of them until later on in the game when we put some things together to tie it up and bring it to overtime but overall it was terrible.”

LaVoy credited Blind River for forcing the Thunderbirds into mistakes at times in the game.

“They forechecked and had a lot of pressure on us,” said LaVoy. “That caused us to make mistakes and that’s where the little things come in that we didn’t do and they capitalized on it.”

Corey McEwen was the hero for the Beavers, scoring the overtime winner at 4:01 of the first overtime period, giving Blind River their third win of the young season. The goal came just moments after McEwen was robbed by Thunderbirds goaltender Joel Horodziejczyk.

“It was a great team effort all around,” said Blind River coach Doug McEwen. “At 4-1 we were dominating but we tend to relax a little bit and we fell asleep a little bit and let them right back in the game.”

After the two teams traded first-period goals, the Beavers opened up a 4-1 lead in the second period but after scoring the fourth goal, Greg Sartoretto scored just six seconds later for the Thunderbirds to cut the lead to two. A goal by Derek Battagin with one second remaining in the second period cut the lead down to one heading into the final period.

In the third period, Matt Zalewski scored at 17:55 to tie the game at four.

Corey McEwen and Myckauly Melanson had a goal and an assist each for Blind River while Brandon Bazinet had three assists in the win. Paul Muio, Zach Peasse and Scott Marshall also scored for the Beavers while goaltender Aaron Cormier stopped 26 shots.

Battagin had a goal and two assists for the Thunderbirds while Greg Sartoretto had a goal and an assist. Josh Borgen and Brandon Warmington also scored for the Thunderbirds. Joel Horodziejczyk stopped 17 shots.

The Thunderbirds return to action Saturday night when they host the Elliot Lake Bobcats at the Essar Centre at 7:30 p.m. The locals then wrap up a three-games-in-three-days stint with a home game against North Bay at 3 p.m. on Sunday at the Essar Centre.

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OTHER SCORES

In Elliot Lake, Trevor Hunt had three goals and an assist while Graham Pickard set up four goals as the North Bay Trappers beat the Elliot Lake Bobcats 7-4. Joe Echelmeier and Duane Wainman had a goal and an assist each while Samuel Blanchet and Corbin Bean also scored. Nicholas Tassone had a goal and an assist for Elliot Lake while John Folmer, Dustin Cordeiro and Corey Giffel also scored.

In Kirkland Lake, Connor McNally had two goals and an assist to lead the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners to a 4-2 win over the Abitibi Eskimos. Ethan Strong and Kyle Bishop also scored while goaltender Chris Komma stopped 23 shots in the win. Eric Martineau and Dustin Jesseau scored for Abitibi while Marc Audet stopped 34 shots.

Photo courtesy James Egan Photography

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