T-Birds tame Sabrecats in shutout fashion

The Soo Thunderbirds continued their solid defensive play and gathered their first shutout of the season on Sunday afternoon.

Holding the Rayside Balfour Sabrecats to 23 shots on net, the Thunderbirds gathered a 4-0 win at the John Rhodes Community Centre to give goaltender Michael Maulucci and the team their first shutout of the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League season.

"Our defense has been playing very well lately," said Thunderbirds head coach Toots Kovacs. "Holding them to 23 shots is a testament to those guys. There are some high scoring players in this league and Sudbury is no different. To shut a team down like that is a good accomplishment.

"They couldn't have done it without (Maulucci). He has been there game in and game out and we're really happy for him to get his first shutout in junior hockey. He works hard and never takes a day off."

Despite a number of quality opportunities, the Thunderbirds were held scoreless through two periods as Sabrecats goaltender Cedric Bradette, the game's first star, turned aside Matt Dias on a breakaway in the second period before Pat Keating rang a shot off the post on a two-on-one break.

The Thunderbirds, who improve to 7-6-1-1 for 16 points, outshot the Sabrecats 18-3 in the first period and 48-23 overall.

In a rough and wild third period, the Thunderbirds thought they had scored the game's opening goal 1:22 into the frame but the marker was quickly disallowed as the puck was struck with a high stick.

Matt Caria eventually opened the scoring at 8:41 with his sixth goal of the year short handed. Dias followed with his ninth goal of the season at 17:06 with the locals enjoying a four-on-three advantage.

Ryan Maunu became the first Thunderbird to hit the 10-goal mark with a short handed empty net goal while Chris Towell also found the empty net while short handed.

"It was frustrating but we can't let not scoring get to us," said Kovacs. "Hard work will pay off and it showed in the third period. We just tried to keep getting puck on the net and we showed that with 18 shots in the first period. You could be facing Patrick Roy but if you're getting 18 shots a period, eventually one is going to go in.

"Caria's short handed goal was a big one for us and it really gave our bench a lift and we fed off that. We really needed these two points and now we're looking forward to facing Blind River."

The Thunderbirds return to action on Wednesday against the rival Blind River Beavers at the Rhodes beginning at 7:30 p.m.

(All photos provided courtesy of Jim Egan.)