T-Birds drop opener to Northern Michigan

The Northern Michigan Black Bears have taken an early lead over the Soo Thunderbirds with a game one victory on Tuesday night.

Tony Stoehr kicked aside 29 shots in goal as the Black Bears blanked the Thunderbirds 3-0 in St. Ignace to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League western division final.

The series will now switch to Sault Ste. Marie with game two scheduled for Friday at the John Rhodes Community Centre beginning at 7:30 p.m.

After a scoreless first period, the Black Bears took a 1-0 lead on a goal by Russell Law.

In the third period, Chris Kraft scored a power play goal at 6:42 before Ryan Behnke completed the scoring with an empty net goal with 46 seconds remaining.

Thunderbirds goaltender Michael Maulucci faced 46 Black Bears shots in the loss.

Game three of the series is scheduled for Saturday night in St. Ignace while a fourth game will go Monday at the Rhodes. Both games begin at 7:30 p.m.

*** NOJHL AWARDS:

Thunderbirds rookie head coach Toots Kovacs was named the NOJHL’s coach of the year as the league announced their annual award winners.

Kovacs, who was also named as coach of the first all-star team, along with Al Jones, who was named as the league’s first team manager, led the Thunderbirds to a 26-17-2-3 record and a tie for second place in the western division during the regular season.

Centre Ryan Maunu captured the most gentlemanly player award while centre Matt Caria shared the rookie of the year award with North Bay’s Yves Bastien.

Defenseman Kyle Jones received a pair of honours by sharing the Best Overall Team Player award with Abitibi’s Mitch Champagne and capturing the Thunderbirds Molson Player of the Year award.

Other Thunderbird all-stars included right winger Matt Dias and trainer Billy Syms on the first team along with Caria and goaltender Michael Maulucci on the second team.

Other award winners around the league included Blind River goaltender Kevin King, a Sault product, who was selected as the league’s Most Improved Player.

Blind River’s Thomas Laplante was named as the league’s Most Valuable Player, captured the league scoring championship and was named to the first all-star team.

North Bay’s Josh Merson was the league’s top defenseman, Marc Andre Rizk was the top defensive player and goaltender Mike Lalonde posted the league’s best goals against average.

Rayside Balfour’s Mike Rowlandson was the league’s Executive of the Year and Sudbury’s Paul Pidutti was the Scholastic Player of the Year.

*** ABITIBI TIES SERIES WITH NORTH BAY:

The Abitibi Eskimos used a goal by Adam Chircoski 10:25 into overtime to beat the North Bay Skyhawks 2-1 in Iroqoius Falls on Tuesday night to even their eastern division final series at 1-1.

*** NOJHL PLAYOFFS:

SEMI-FINALS:

WESTERN DIVISION:

1. NORTHERN MICHIGAN vs. 3. SOO THUNDERBIRDS

(Northern Michigan leads series 1-0)

Game 1 - Tue. Mar. 29 - Northern Michigan 3 Soo 0 Game 2 - Fri. Apr. 1 - Northern Michigan vs. Soo Game 3 - Sat. Apr. 2 - Soo vs. Northern Michigan Game 4 - Mon. Apr. 4 - Northern Michigan vs. Soo *Game 5 - Wed. Apr. 6 - Soo vs. Northern Michigan *Game 6 - Fri. Apr. 8 - Northern Michigan vs. Soo *Game 7 - Sat. Apr. 9 - Soo vs. Northern Michigan

(* if necessary)

EASTERN DIVISION:

1. NORTH BAY vs. 2. ABITIBI

(Series tied 1-1)

Game 1 - Sun. Mar. 27 - North Bay 4 Abitibi 1 Game 2 - Tue. Mar. 29 - Abitibi 2 North Bay 1 (OT) Game 3 - Fri. Apr. 1 - Abitibi vs. North Bay Game 4 - Sun. Apr. 3 - North Bay vs. Abitibi Game 5 - Tue. Apr. 5 - Abitibi vs. North Bay *Game 6 - Fri. Apr. 8 - North Bay vs. Abitibi *Game 7 - Mon. Apr. 11 - Abitibi vs. North Bay

QUARTERFINALS:

WESTERN DIVISION:

2. BLIND RIVER vs. 3. SOO THUNDERBIRDS

(Soo wins series 4-1)

Game 1 - Thur. Mar. 17 - Soo 4 Blind River 2 Game 2 - Sat. Mar. 19 - Soo 6 Blind River 5 (OT) Game 3 - Mon. Mar. 21 - Blind River 4 Soo 2 Game 4 - Wed. Mar. 23 - Soo 7 Blind River 1 Game 5 - Thur. Mar. 24 - Soo 8 Blind River 3

1. NORTHERN MICHIGAN vs. 4. MANITOULIN

(Northern Michigan wins series 4-0)

Game 1 - Tue. Mar. 15 - Northern Michigan 10 Manitoulin 2 Game 2 - Wed. Mar. 16 - Northern Michigan 12 Manitoulin 2 Game 3 - Fri. Mar. 18 - Northern Michigan 13 Manitoulin 1 Game 4 - Sat. Mar. 19 - Northern Michigan 6 Manitoulin 0

EASTERN DIVISION:

1. NORTH BAY vs. 4. SUDBURY

(North Bay wins series 4-1)

Game 1 - Tue. Mar. 15 - North Bay 7 Sudbury 3 Game 2 - Wed. Mar. 16 - North Bay 4 Sudbury 1 Game 3 - Fri. Mar. 18 - Sudbury 5 North Bay 4 (OT) Game 4 - Sun. Mar. 20 - North Bay 9 Sudbury 1 Game 5 - Tue. Mar. 22 - North Bay 2 Sudbury 1 (OT)

2. ABITIBI vs. 3. RAYSIDE BALFOUR

(Abitibi wins series 4-0)

Game 1 - Mon. Mar. 14 - Abitibi 3 Rayside Balfour 2 Game 2 - Thur. Mar. 17 - Abitibi 6 Rayside Balfour 5 (OT) Game 3 - Sat. Mar. 19 - Abitibi 3 Rayside Balfour 0 Game 4 - Thu. Mar. 24 - Abitibi 6 Rayside Balfour 3

***