Thunderbirds roll past the Islanders (11 photos)

The Soo Thunderbirds won their fifth consecutive contest on Friday night at the John Rhodes Community Centre with an 8-1 thumping of the Manitoulin Islanders.

The victory allows the Thunderbirds to jump into second place in the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League standings with games in hand over the remaining six teams.

The Thunderbirds, who have 11 regular season games left, return to action on Wednesday at the Rhodes against their cross-border rival Northern Michigan Black Bears at 7:30 p.m.

The Thunderbirds, at 25-11-1 for 51 points, have a one point lead over the Black Bears with two games in hand. Only the Sudbury Junior Wolves are ahead of the locals in the standings with 10 more points although the Thunderbirds have three games in hand. The North Bay Skyhawks are tied with Northern Michigan for third spot and have also played two more games than the Soo.

On Friday, Ryan Maunu paced the Thunderbirds, who lead 1-0 after one period and 4-0 after two, with two goals and an assist. Mark Thorburn added a goal and two assists while Chris Towell chipped in a goal and a helper.

Single goals went to Tyler Gendron, Adam Kauppi, Drew Jarrett and Nick Minardi. Mike McMillan recorded three assists and Matt Conway two.

Josh Rathbone scored the lone goal for Manitoulin on the power play.

Travis O'Brien recorded the win in goal by stopping 31 of 32 shots while the Thunderbirds fired 41 shots on Islanders goaltender Matt Thompson.

(PHOTOS: Pictures from the last two games involving the Soo and Manitoulin. All pictures are courtesy of Jim Egan.)