Beavers clip Thunderbirds wings

The Blind River Beavers put on an offensive clinic of their own on Saturday night.

After the Soo Thunderbirds scored to take a 1-0 lead, the Beavers scored five unanswered goals and held on for a 9-6 win in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League action in Blind River.

Heading into the contest, the Beavers found themselves in last place in the Western Division. Although the team has struggled with the second worst defensive record and offensive record in the league, they feature one of the loop's top offensive lines.

The Thunderbirds, meanwhile, were looking to pad their division lead over Northern Michigan and jump back into the race for first overall in NOJHL with Sudbury and North Bay.

After Kyle Jones opened the scoring on the power play for the Thunderbirds, the Beavers answered with three goals in the opening period by Thomas Laplante, Anthony Brune and Darren Rainville along with second period tallies by Rainville and an empty net goal by Dustin McLeod.

The Thunderbirds attempted to jump back into the game with goals by Aaron Anderson and Ryan MacKay 1:30 apart. But 10 seconds after MacKay's goal, McLeod scored another empty net goal followed a Billy Schill marker to give the Beavers a 7-3 lead. Bryan Pearse then scored twice for the Thunderbirds to close the period scoring.

Drew Jarrett and David Paul into the empty net scored for the Beavers in the third period while Pearse scored his third of the game for the Soo. Rainville, Jarrett and MacKay added two assists each in the game.

Kevin King stopped 36 of 42 shots in net for Blind River while Casey Mapes started the game for the T-Birds and was pulled after the third Blind River goal. Jarrett Michaels replaced Mapes in net.

The Thunderbirds fall to 21-7-5-1 and will get a chance to score some revenge on the 11-23-1-1 Beavers on Wednesday as the teams collide at 7:30 p.m. at the John Rhodes Community Centre.