T-Birds caged by Northern Michigan

The Soo Thunderbirds hopes for a division title were dealt a serious blow on Sunday afternoon.

Twice building two goal leads, the Northern Michigan Black Bears skated away from the John Rhodes Community Centre with a 4-3 victory over the Thunderbirds to increase the gap on top of the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League western division standings.

With 58 points, the Black Bears increased their lead over the third place T-Birds, who have two games in hand and seven regular season games remaining, to 12 points and gain a seven point edge on the second place Blind River Beavers.

The Black Bears opened a 2-0 lead when Chris Kraft scored back-to-back goals, the first coming on the power play, in a span of 1:29 in the first period.

The Thunderbirds fought back to send the game into the intermission tied at 2-2 as Ryan Maunu and Mark Thorburn scored 1:15 apart late in the frame. Maunu's goal marked the 60th point of the season for the rookie forward.

In the second period, the Black Bears scored a back breaking goal as Jordan Bowman converted after the Thunderbirds failed several times to clear the zone.

Russell Law gave Northern Michigan a 4-2 lead 2:37 into the third period before Matt Dias, who had an assist earlier in the game, triggered a Thunderbirds comeback attempt with a goal with 3:32 remaining in regulation time.

Despite being pressed for the equalizer, Michael Bell, who was brought in to replace the departed Kirk Panik, stood tall in the Black Bears net and earned his first NOJHL victory.

Bell also came up big early in the second period to keep the game tied by stopping Thunderbirds sniper Matt Dias on a shorthanded breakaway.

"That was the first time we saw that kid this year and he made some big saves for them," said Thunderbirds head coach Toots Kovacs. "Whenever we had some momentum he shut us down.

"Their third goal was the big one. We had a chance to clear the zone on three different occasions and had the puck within three feet of our blue line but they scored on that shift and it kind of deflated us after that."

Jim Clegarek recorded two assists for Northern Michigan while Law added another.

The Thunderbirds outshot the Black Bears 43-30.

"I thought we worked hard but St. Ignace is a good hockey team and I thought they played a lot more disciplined than they usually do," said Kovacs. "That's indicative of (assistant coach) Bart (Jarrett) and (head coach) Jerry (Lortie) because that's the way they coach and they had their guys prepared."

The game also featured a pair of fights as Thunderbirds defenseman Kyle Jones battled Mike Herbert in the second period after Herbert collided heavily with Thunderbirds goaltender Michael Maulucci, who came 40 feet out of his net to the side boards in a race for a loose puck.

Maulucci was down for a short period but managed to stay in the game. Late in the game, T-Birds defenseman Justin Shelleby battled John Nogatch.

While there may have been a couple of Northern Michigan goals that Maulucci would like to have back, Kovacs refuses to lay any blame on his number one netminder.

"Michael Maulucci has been great for us all year and has stood on his head. We are not going to worry about two goals when he has saved hundreds of other ones."

The Thunderbirds also played the game without defenseman Jeff Elliott, who served the first of a two-game suspension for disputing an official's call.

The locals now hit the road for two games with stops in Sudbury on Wednesday and Blind River on Saturday. Next home action for the locals is next Sunday against the Manitoulin Wild at 6 p.m. at the Rhodes.

(All photos courtesy of Jim Egan.)