Thunderbirds suffer first loss

Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League action continued for the Soo Thunderbirds on Saturday night as they hosted the Sudbury Nickel Barons.

A third-period goal by Jimmy Roy led the Nickel Barons to a 3-2 win over the Thunderbirds to improve to 6-1 on the young NOJHL season.

The Thunderbirds were playing their second game in as many nights as they beat the Powassan Voodoos 4-2 just 24 hours earlier.

Saturday’s loss, the first of the new season for the Thunderbirds, saw Sudbury take advantage of some mistakes to pick up the win.

“We were happy for the most part,” said Thunderbirds coach Jordan Smith. “We out-chanced them but the difference was that we had too many breakdowns and they made us pay. The put the puck in the net on their opportunities and we didn’t.”

For the Nickel Barons, Saturday’s win was one in which coach Jason Young was pleased with aside from a stretch in the second period.

“The first period was a pretty good road period for us but I didn’t like out second period,” said Young. “It looked like we stopped skating and opened up the floodgates, trading chances for about seven or eight minutes.”

“We had some guys step up,” Young also said. “I just liked how we played. We had to kill some penalties. We didn’t have many power plays. We had one at the end where we were trying to kill the clock more than try to score a goal. There was a lot of things that I liked.”

Izaak Del Mastro had a goal and an assist for the Thunderbirds in the loss while Travis Campbell also scored. Goaltender Mario Culina stopped 32 shots.

“Tonight was a good indication that we’ve got a little work to do, especially in our own zone,” said Smith, “but it’s only our third game. We’ll move on and learn from it.”

Lucas Toth has a goal and an assist for Sudbury while Dylan Callaghan also scored. Kevin Labelle stopped 48 shots for Sudbury in the win.

For Young, the Nickel Barons quick start is just that, a start.

“There’s no reason to get on cloud nine but it’s a good start,” said Young. “We’re still missing some key guys here who should be coming back in the next few weeks. Coming into camp we wanted to try to change the atmosphere and change how things were going.”

The Thunderbirds return to action on Sept. 28 when they host the Elliot Lake Bobcats.

In other NOJHL action on Saturday night, Steve Harland had a goal and three assists as the Powassan Voodoos beat the Blind River Beavers 10-2. In Iroquois Falls, Brady Clouthier scored the game winning goal at 8:04 of the third period to lead the Abitibi Eskimos to a 2-1 win over the Cochrane Crunch. In Kirkland Lake. Tristen Hazlett scored five goals and set up another as the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners beat the Mattawa Blackhawks 13-4.