Canadians grab early lead, extend series with Thunderbirds

With an opportunity to advance to the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League final with a victory, the Soo Thunderbirds fell behind early and couldn’t recover on Saturday night.

The Rayside-Balfour Canadians took an early 2-0 lead en route to a 5-3 win over the Thunderbirds and staved off elimination in the process.

The Thunderbirds hold a 3-2 series edge following Saturday’s action.

The Canadians opened up the 2-0 lead early as Zachary Snow and Kyle Liinamaa scored 2:02 apart in the opening six minutes of the contest.

Snow scored on a point shot through traffic that beat Thunderbirds netminder Colin Ahern.

A defensive-zone turnover led to the second Rayside goal. A clearing attempt deflected off one of the linesmen along the left side boards and was picked by Noah Serre who fired a shot from the left faceoff circle past Ahern short side.

Matthew Bazarin would get the Thunderbirds on the board just over two minutes later as he deflected a Steven Bellini point shot past Rayside netminder David Bowen on the power play but Ethan Lavallee would make it 3-1 with a power play goal of his own later in the frame.

Noah Boman would cut the Rayside lead back to one with a power play goal early in the second period but the Canadians wasted little time in getting that goal Back as Serre would score shorthanded on a 2-on-1 21 seconds later.

Lavallee would make it 5-2 in the final seconds of the second period.

Ryan Lawrence capped off the Thunderbirds scoring with his third goal of the playoffs late in the third period.

Ahern stopped 16 of 21 shots in two periods of work.

William Anderson stopped all seven shots he faced in the final period.

At the other end, Bowen made 39 saves.

Game six is set for Monday night in Chelmsford.

Game seven, if necessary, is Wednesday night in Sault Ste. Marie.