Thunderbirds shut out at home

Soo Thunderbirds Coach Jordan Smith has always been very direct when speaking about his team and that didn’t change on Wednesday night.

Playing their first game on home-ice since Oct. 10, the Thunderbirds dropped a 3-0 decision to the Elliot Lake Wildcats at the John Rhodes Community Centre Wednesday night.

Smith was very direct in his assessment of the Thunderbirds in the loss.

“We were brutal,” Smith said. “We didn’t move our feet. We didn’t compete for pucks. We didn’t finish checks. We didn’t generate offence. You name it. We were just not good tonight and that’s the bottom line.”

“It’s frustrating when you don’t give yourself a chance to win,” Smith also said. “I don’t think this club should ever be shut out. You’re going to lose games. It’s just frustrating losing the way we did.”

Kevin Miller and Shane Woolsey had a goal and an assist each for the Wildcats in the win while Cole Hepler also scored.

“We played really well,” said Wildcats Coach Nathan Hewitt. “We had a game plan and talked about all of the little things like our ‘D’ zone and how we want to play in the offensive zone, how we want to play away from the puck, how we wanted to play with the puck and we executed it.”

Wildcats goaltender A.J. Smith stopped 35 shots for the shutout.

“He was great,” Hewitt said of Smith. “(The Thunderbirds) made him work a lot in the second period. In the first and third we took the play to them but in the second period he really bailed us out when we needed him to and that’s why he’s our guy.”

For the Thunderbirds, Mario Culina made 18 saves in the loss.

“Mario was great,” Smith said of the rookie netminder. “He kept it close and gave us a chanc e to come back.”

The Thunderbirds are back in action on Saturday night in Blind River. The Thunderbirds then kick off a seven-game homestand on Dec. 5 against the Cochrane Crunch.