T-Birds settle for tie with Wild

The Soo Thunderbirds let a pair of two goal leads slip away to settle for a draw with the Manitoulin Wild on Friday night.

Holding leads of 4-2 and 5-3, the Soo Thunderbirds allowed the Wild to score three times in the third period to battle back to a 5-5 tie in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League action at the John Rhodes Community Centre.

The tie capped a disappointing two-game home stand for the Thunderbirds after a lack luster 6-5 loss to the Northern Michigan Black Bears on Wednesday.

The tie extends the Thunderbirds record to 11-8-2-1 and keeps the club in a first place tie with the Wild, who hold a game in hand, in the western division with 25 points each. Blind River and Northern Michigan sit just three points behind.

Mark Thorburn opened the scoring for the Thunderbirds with late first period goal before Brent Assinewai tied the game for the Wild 4:10 into the second period.

Matt Dias restored the Thunderbirds lead just 54 seconds later with his 19th goal of the season as the sniper fired a shot past Wild goaltender Kyle May on a breakaway.

Manitoulin rebounded to tie the game 2:09 later as Wade Debassige scored his first of the season on the power play.

Matt Caria closed the second period of play with a pair of goals, including one with the man advantage, to give the Thunderbirds a 4-2 lead.

The Wild's Brent Henley scored his first of two goals just eight seconds into the third period before Adam Kauppi scored at the 2:00 mark while playing four-on-four to regain the T-Birds two goal lead at 5-3.

Henley scored again at 4:25 and Ken May added another at 12:41 with a five-on-three power play to lift the Wild into the 5-5 final.

The Thunderbirds had a pair of golden opportunities to win in overtime but Kyle May came up with a big kick save on Ryan Maunu before another Thunderbirds shot rang off the goal post in the dying seconds.

Michael Maulucci stopped 33 of 38 shots for the Thunderbirds while May kicked aside 36 of 41 shots.

Dias and Maunu added a pair of assists for the Soo while Henley and Ken May setup two goals and Jason Gauthier three for the Wild.

The Thunderbirds will venture on the road next weekend with stops in Rayside on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. and Blind River on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

PHOTO: Matt Dias (#15) of the Thunderbirds fires a breakaway goal past Wild goaltender Kyle May. (All photos courtesy of Jim Egan.)