By SooToday Staff
SooToday.com
Sunday, November 22, 2009

NEWS RELEASE

SOO THUNDERBIRDS

************************

The TBirds Pull Away In The Race For The Carmen Provenzano Cup

The Soo Thunderbirds and the Blind River Beavers met for game five in the Carmen Provenzano Cup in Blind River. The T-Birds would take the game and pull into a 4-1 lead in the race for the coveted cup.

The Beavers came out strong in the early going and pinned the T-Birds in their own end for the first four minutes of play. Ryan McDonald made some nice stops in the early going to keep the Beavers off the scoreboard. The fourth line of the T-Birds, Luke O’Brien, Ryan McLean and Aaron Ross, would show some good effort on their first shift and start to change the momentum.

Both teams worked hard through most of the period, but little offense seemed to be generated, until Beaver goalie Chandler Long made a great stop with only 20 seconds left to keep the game a tied at 0-0 to end the frame.

Chad Thibodeau put the T-Birds ahead 1-0 at 02:06 of the second period, after taking a nice pass from Justin Thomas up the right wall and beating Chandler Long short side.

The Beavers would answer with a power play goal scored by Chad Richard at 07:09. The T-Birds got caught with only three men back after Beaver Grant Paulson laid a dirty slew foot on back checking T-Bird Jerry Petingalo, which was missed by the officials. The second period ended in a 1-1 tie.

Colin Barnaskas put in some excellent effort in the Beaver zone and drew a penalty at the 04:29 mark. The T-Birds quickly answered with a power play goal at 04:35. Tyler Evoy made a sweet pass to point man Bronson Kovacs, who put a nice low shot on net and Nicholas Romano buried the rebound to put the T-Birds ahead 2-1.


At 05:42 Chad Thibodeau would score his second of the night, to put the T-Birds up 3-1. Thibodeau took a pass from Kurtis Travaglini and let his shot go just inside the Beaver blue line. It was a rather rare, weak goal on Beaver goalie Chandler Long.

T-Bird Justin Thomas showed some great dangle at 16:46 and turned the Beavers defensemen inside out before burying the shot to close out the scoring at 4-1 for the Thunderbirds.


CLOSING NOTES

Chad Thibodeau was awarded first star on the night, and rightfully deserved it. As well as scoring two goals he taught one Beaver it is not wise to throw low comments at your opponent. During the second period TBird Ryan McLean was ejected for fighting, Beaver Gabe West jumped into the fight to help his team mate. TBird Gii Kakegabon went in to pull West off of McLean. There were no punches thrown by Kakegabon, and he did what any team mate should do. Yet he was given a totally unwarranted two game suspension.

The race between the Beavers and the T-Birds continues Wed. Nov. 26, 7:30 at the Rhodes.

***********************************************************