Thunderbirds power past Beavers in home opener

The Soo Thunderbirds opened the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League season on Sunday night in a familiar building.

The Thunderbirds, who return to play home games at the John Rhodes Community Centre, began the 2014-15 season Sunday with a 12-1 victory over the Blind River Beavers.

In all, 14 Thunderbirds players had at least one point in the win while Nicolas Sicoly and Nick Tassone each had three goals and five points to lead the way offensively for the home team.

“We tried some different line combinations and we found a couple of guys that click well together,” said Thunderbirds coach Jordan Smith. “It’s a tough game to play in for both teams but we obviously played well tonight.”

Rookie forward Matt Caruso chipped in with a pair of goals and an assist while defenceman Owen Headrick, who recently committed to Lake Superior State University, added a goal and an assist for the Thunderbirds.

Brett Jeffries, Matthew Mitchell and Matt Pinder also scored in the win.

“We’re still trying to find guys that click well together,” Smith said. “We found a few tonight but it’s nice to be able to use guys all over and get them comfortable playing with different players. As the week goes on we’ll figure out who will be the best combinations but so far we like what we see.”

Veteran forward Jaren Bellini had three assists for the Thunderbirds while Alex Morin, Travis Campbell and Nathan Hebert chipped in with a pair of assists each.

Chris Corgan had the lone goal for the Beavers in the loss.

“Tonight was a good eye-opener for our guys,” said Blind River coach Don Gagnon. “We’re learning how to play in this league and it’s going to take a little bit of time. We’ll learn from this and go forward.

Despite the ease of the win, Smith said there are some challenges going forward,

“The toughest part is probably getting the feeling that it’s that easy and that’s the way it’s going to be,” said Smith. “I told the guys after the game that we have to have a good week of practice because we’ve got Sudbury and Powassan next weekend and it will be a lot tougher. We’ll be challenged a lot more.”

On the other side, Gagnon said the Thunderbirds speed was a factor in the game.

“We did a lot of watching and (the Thunderbirds) speed was a factor,” Gagnon said. “We have some guys with speed but they just didn’t use it at the right times. Now that we’ve seen that part of it, we know that we have to come off our heels and start using our speed as well.”

Thunderbirds goaltender Mario Culina stopped 18 shots to pick up his first NOJHL victory. Nick Kazmierczak got the start for Blind River and stopped 17 shots before beign pulled in the second period after the Thunderbirds fifth goal. Zach Mills stopped 24 of 31 shots the rest of the way for the Beavers.

The Thunderbirds return to action on September 19 when they host the Powassan Voodoos in the first of back-to-back games over the weekend.

On Saturday night the Thunderbirds host the Sudbury Nickel Barons. Puck drop for both games is 7:30 p.m.

(File photo: Soo Thunderbirds forward Nicholas Tassone by Kenneth Armstrong/SooToday.com)