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Series stranglehold for Thunderbirds

A single victory. That’s all the Soo Thunderbirds need to advance to the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League championship series after a 5-0 win over the Elliot Lake Wildcats on Monday night at the Essar Centre.

A single victory.

That’s all the Soo Thunderbirds need to advance to the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League championship series after a 5-0 win over the Elliot Lake Wildcats on Monday night at the Essar Centre.

The Thunderbirds opened up a 2-0 lead in the first period, outshooting the Wildcats 16- 5 in the frame.

“We took control early and I don’t think we relinquished that,” said Thunderbirds Coach Jordan Smith, whose team outshot Elliot Lake 29-7 through 40 minutes and 44-17 in the contest. “We’re obviously really happy with where we’re at right now but we’re not satisfied.”

Anthony Miller scored a pair of goals to lead the Thunderbirds to their third-straight victory over the Wildcats to open the West Division final.

“The biggest thing for Anthony is just doing all of the little things well,” said Smith. “We could speak volumes about all of our guys. The buy-in is there.”

Matt Caruso chipped in with a goal and an assist while David Radke and Nicolas Tassone assisted on two goals each. Matthew Mitchell and Brandon Grandinetti also scored for the Thunderbirds.

Goaltender Brian Kment made 17 saves for the shutout.

Elliot Lake goaltender A.J. Smith stopped 39 shots.

Elliot Lake Coach Nathan Hewitt noted the Thunderbirds work ethic following the series opener and felt it played a role again in Monday’s game.

“(The Thunderbirds) are a team that’s been there and done that before and it’s very evident in the way that they’ve stepped it up in their play as compared to what they were in the regular season,” said Hewitt.

The Thunderbirds scored a pair of power play goals on four man-advantage opportunities in the game.

“Our power play got us going early,” Smith said. “It was great execution by those guys.”

The series now shifts back to Elliot Lake as the Wildcats will look to stave off elimination on Wednesday night at Centennial Arena.

In the East Division final, the Powassan Voodoos will host the Cochrane Crunch on Tuesday night in game three of that series. On home-ice, Cochrane won the opening two games by scores of 7-4 in game one and 6-2 in game two


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Brad Coccimiglio

About the Author: Brad Coccimiglio

A graduate of Loyalist College’s Sports Journalism program, Brad Coccimiglio’s work has appeared in The Hockey News as well as online at FoxSports.com in addition to regular freelance work with SooToday before joining the team full time.
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